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International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Book | Chapter

226587

Disease as scientific and as value-laden concept

Elselijn Kingma

pp. 45-63

Abstract

Health and disease are central concepts in medical practice. Defining them may assist in determining the scope of medicine; legitimizing medicine and psychiatry; and determining or even justly distributing medical care. This chapter reviews the philosophical literature on health and disease. It discusses naturalism (the view that disease is a value-free concept), normativism (the view that the concept of disease is, essentially, value laden), and reasons why the polarizing opposition between naturalism and normativism may have to be rejected or, at least, nuanced.

Publication details

Published in:

Schramme Thomas, Edwards Steven D. (2017) Handbook of the philosophy of medicine. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 45-63

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-8688-1_75

Full citation:

Kingma Elselijn (2017) „Disease as scientific and as value-laden concept“, In: T. Schramme & S. D. Edwards (eds.), Handbook of the philosophy of medicine, Dordrecht, Springer, 45–63.