The idea of health is surrounded in conceptual confusion. Health is captured in a positive or a negative view. The first on is sociological, broader, and tendentious, and it posits norms of happiness, well-being, and self-realization, so that it is more cultural than medical: according to the WHO, it is a dynamic state of complete physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being. The second one is medical and defined by default, and it is construed on what it is not, in the contrafactual background of diseases, handicaps and other negativities. The disease concept is not conceptually secondary to the concept of health: it has epistemic priority. What moves people are suffering, unmanageable disability and disease that is to say unhealth. When expectations are not met, a call for medical help goes up. When expectations are fulfilled, usually nothing is said, so that health consists of having the same disease as your neighbours. Despite its title, WHO concerns itself mainly with diseases.

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Health

  • Lucien Karhausen

摘要

The idea of health is surrounded in conceptual confusion. Health is captured in a positive or a negative view. The first on is sociological, broader, and tendentious, and it posits norms of happiness, well-being, and self-realization, so that it is more cultural than medical: according to the WHO, it is a dynamic state of complete physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being. The second one is medical and defined by default, and it is construed on what it is not, in the contrafactual background of diseases, handicaps and other negativities. The disease concept is not conceptually secondary to the concept of health: it has epistemic priority. What moves people are suffering, unmanageable disability and disease that is to say unhealth. When expectations are not met, a call for medical help goes up. When expectations are fulfilled, usually nothing is said, so that health consists of having the same disease as your neighbours. Despite its title, WHO concerns itself mainly with diseases.