On concepts of positive health
2016 (English)In: Handbook of the philosophy of medicine / [ed] Thomas Schramme; Steven Edwards, Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 2016, p. 29-43Chapter in book (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
This chapter presents some main interpretations of the concept of health from antiquity until today. There is an emphasis on ideas of health as a positive notion, i.e., as something over and above the absence of disease. After giving a summary of some classic intuitions about health, the chapter concentrates on contemporary attempts to analyze health in terms of well-being and ability. Starting with the famous WHO definition of health, where health is understood as complete physical, mental, social, and spiritual well-being, the chapter turns to a presentation of some scholarly analyses of health, where health is mainly analyzed in ability terms. Examples are taken mainly from the philosophical literature but also from other disciplines. It is noted that almost all definitions in the nursing and feminist literature understand health in positive terms in contrast to such naturalist definitions as present health as merely the absence of disease. The chapter further contains a discussion of health as a culture-dependent notion and makes a comparison between the concepts of human and animal health.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 2016. p. 29-43
Keywords [en]
Health, Health mental health, Health spiritual health, Health categories of, Health definition, Balance, Health as balance, Homeostasis, Equilibrium, Well-being, Health as well-being, Subjective health, Health as ability, Ability, Health nursing and feminist characterizations of, Cultural relativism, Health and cultural relativism, Health human beings versus animals and plants
National Category
Philosophy
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:esh:diva-5889DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-8688-1_2ISBN: 978-94-017-8687-4 (print)ISBN: 978-94-017-8688-1 (electronic)ISBN: 978-94-017-8689-8 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:esh-5889DiVA, id: diva2:1086958
2017-04-052017-04-052023-08-11Bibliographically approved