Originally published in 1987, this book is about the classification of bodily conditions into diseases. It provides a full account of the concept of disease, examining the issue of whether disease status is something we discover or invent and the issue of whether disease attributions involve implicit value judgements. It investigates whether bodily conditions fall into natural kinds and whether these debates can be settled by discovering whether there are any natural boundaries dividing conditions into diseases and non-diseases. It considers whether the notion of disease is an evaluative notion or whether judgements about disease status are purely descriptive. The issue of whether other cultures with different values are justified in making different disease judgements is also discussed.
Author(s): Lawrie Reznek
Series: Routledge Library Editions: Health, Disease & Society, 21
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 239
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Original Title Page
Original Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Medicine and the Need for Philosophy
Why Philosophize?
Sickness or Poor Training?
Defect or Decay?
Habit or Disease?
Symptom or Normality?
Disease or Way of Life?
Naughty or Ill?
A Medical or Political Problem?
A Role for Philosophers
Chapter 1: Invention or Discovery?
From Anti-Psychiatry to Anti-Medicine
Values and Classification
Inventing Diseases
Chapter 2: Taxonomic Realism 1: Natural Kinds
Taxonomic Realism
Medical Taxonomic Realism
Natural Kinds
(1) Whewell's Criterion
(2) The Cluster Criterion
(3) The Explanatory Nature Criterion
(4) The Law-Like Connectedness Criterion
Chapter 3: Taxonomic Realism 2: Semantics
Introduction
Semantic Theories
What Language Do We Speak?
Chapter 4: The Nature of Disease
Introduction
Pathological Conditions
Do Diseases Constitute a Natural Kind?
Do Diseases have a Nominal Essence?
Disease and Explanation
Chapter 5: The Normal and the Pathological
Introduction
Do Pathological Conditions Constitute a Natural Kind?
The Nominal Essence of Pathology
The Nature of Norms of Health
Chapter 6: The Concept of Function
Introduction
The Problems
The Evaluative Theory
The Teleological Theory
The Aetiological Theory
Chapter 7: The Naturalist Theory
Introduction
The Concept of Malfunction
Disease as Malfunctioning
Objections
Chapter 8: The Concept of Harm
Introduction
The Logic of Harm
Theories of Human Good
Naturalist Theories
(1) The Functioning Properly Theory
(2) The Hedonistic Theory
(3) The Desire-Satisfaction Theory
The Normative Theory
Chapter 9: The Normativist Theory
Introduction
Death, Disability, Discomfort and Disfiguration
Disease as Harm
Objections
Chapter 10: Disease Entities as Natural Kinds
Introduction
Are Disease Entities Natural Kinds?
Is There a Determinate Number of Pre-Existing Diseases?
Chapter 11: The Semantics of Disease Terms
Introduction
What Medical Language Do We Speak?
A Taxonomy of Terms
Conclusion: When is a Disease Not a Disease?
Non-Existent Diseases
Conclusions
Bibliography
Index
