On the Nature of Health An Action-Theoretic Approach

GENERAL INTRODUCTION This study of the concept of health is an attempt to combine central ideas in modern philosophy of medicine with certain results from analytical action theory. What emerges from the study is a concept 'of health based on an action-theoretic foundation. A person's healt...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Nordenfelt, L.Y.
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 1995, 1995
Edition:2nd ed. 1995
Series:Philosophy and Medicine
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: Springer Book Archives -2004 - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
Table of Contents:
  • 1: Some Basic Issues in the Philosophy of Health
  • 1. Why a Philosophy of Health?
  • 2. What Should Be Required of an Acceptable Theory of Health?
  • 3. Preliminaries on Conceptual Analysis
  • 4. Two Perspectives on Health and Disease
  • 2: An Analytic Theory of Health: the Biostatistical Theory (BST)
  • 1. The Classical Background
  • 2. On the Concept of a Goal
  • 3. The Biostatistical Theory: A General Presentation
  • 4. The Prima-Facie Merits of the Biostatistical Theory
  • 5. A Critical Assessment of the Biostatistical Theory
  • 3: Towards a Holistic Theory of Health
  • 1. An Action-Theoretic Approach
  • 2. On the General Concepts of Action and Ability
  • 3. On Ability and Disability
  • 4. On First- and Second-Order Ability
  • 5. On the Concept of Vital Goals
  • 6. Health as a Person’s Ability to Fulfill His Basic Human Needs
  • 7. Health as a Person’s Ability to Attain the Goals Set by Himself
  • 8. Towards a New Philosophy of Health: A Welfare Notion of Health
  • 9. On Some Properties of the Welfare Notion of Health
  • 4: On the Factors Which Compromise Health
  • 1. Maladies
  • 2. Other Factors Compromising Health: Old Age, Pregnancy, Grief
  • 5: On Some Societal and Scientific Consequences of the Welfare Notion of Health
  • 1. On the Relation Between Health and Society
  • 2. On Some Consequences of the Welfare Notion of Health for Medicine and Health Care
  • 6: Conclusions and Summary of the Welfare Theory of Health
  • 1. Answers to the Requirements of a Good Theory of Health
  • 2. Glossary
  • Appendix: on the Ontology of Diseases
  • 1. A Classical Debate — Physiologism Versus Ontologism
  • 2. The Problem of Historical Change
  • 3. Towards a Reconstruction of Medical Ontology
  • 4. Some Modern Definitions of Diseases
  • 5. An Analysis of the Disease Concepts
  • 6. Summary
  • Notes.-Supplementary Bibliography
  • Postscript 1994