Animal welfare relates to the feelings, behavior, and the health status of animals. Nevertheless, animal welfare legislation rarely prescribes what animals should feel or experience, but rather what humans should do to protect the animals in their care from unnecessary suffering, and e.g., specifications to provide them with suitable housing conditions and appropriate feed to ensure a reasonably good life. This obviously applies to domesticated animals and wildlife kept in enclosures, but not to free-roaming wildlife. Wildlife welfare has received far less attention than welfare for farm or companion animals, although attempts have been made. In recent years the extent of interest in wildlife welfare has grown, as more people have realized that humans have a substantial influence on the lives and welfare of wildlife individuals. Humans, as individuals and as a species, intentionally or unintentionally influence the welfare of wildlife in many different ways, some of which are discussed in this special issue.

This chapter provides a framework by drawing upon the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty in order to conceptualize health as a mind-body-world phenomenon. The case of psychosomatic ill health will be  used in order to show how insights on the lived body provide a fruitful grounding of health and well-being as a multi-dimensional phenomenon. International research points to the increasing prevalence of patients with psychosomatic health-related issues seeking health care within primary health care. Clinicians in primary care are seldom prepared for the patients in terms of expertise, treatment strategies or communication skills. Phenomenology is the philosophical movement in Continental philosophy arising from the philosophical works of Edmund Husserl. When psychosomatic health and well-being is established, one's way of being-in-the-world is characterized by the seamless flow of the lived body. The ability to allow different "poles" of this mind-body-world unity to dominate is reinstated.

Definitions of health in terms of some kind of balance form a category of their own within the sphere of health definition. Such definitions have their roots in the beginnings of scientific medicine, and popular versions are common among lay people. It has even been claimed that balance is fundamental to health for all species. Several present-day definitions of health in terms of balance are presented here. Particular attention is given to the call for a definition of health applicable to both humans and animals within the One Health approach, involving human medicine, veterinary medicine and ecology. Definitions in terms of balance have been suggested but none has been thoroughly analysed with regard to its suitability. There are therefore three concerns in this paper. The first is to introduce versions of the category of balance, as a first step towards a nomenclature of health definitions. The second is to analyse the claim made recently that balance is a universal criterion of health in all species including humans. The third is to ascertain whether any of the versions discussed is suited to the One Health approach.

Background: An important field of human–animal interactions is animal-assisted interventions (AAIs), which refers to research on human–animal interactions in order to promote or facilitate health or education in humans. Very few studies among the rich literature on AAIs seem to include aspects of animal welfare and/or animal ethics. Also, very few studies on AAIs have a comprehensive human–animal approach that studies animals, humans, and the relations between them at the same time. This paper tries to argue for and present a possible comprehensive human–animal approach to evaluate AAIs.

Methods: A combination of the species and role approach proposed by Lerner, the capability approach proposed by Nussbaum, and a modified comprehensive human–animal approach to evaluate AAIs proposed by Lerner and Silfverberg was philosophically analyzed.

Results: This paper shows that the combination is the modified role and species version of the capabilities approach, and by following it one could do a comprehensive human–animal approach of an evaluation of AAIs.

Conclusion: Although the aim was reached for horses and animal-assisted therapy, further work needs to be done for all species suggested in the IAHAIO (International Association of Human–Animal Interaction Organizations) White Paper as well as for all branches of AAIs in order to establish this comprehensive human–animal approach

This chapter analyzes theoretical conceptions of health and disease for plants and animals. Compared to human health, the discussion of these concepts is sparse, although animal health has received more treatment than plant health. The concept of disease seems to be taken for granted, and few attempts have been made to make a classification of specific types of diseases. The main emphasis in this chapter will be on the contemporary debate on animal health definitions. Although the theoretical discussion on these issues has so far been sparse, a categorization of different kinds of health definitions has been presented at least for animals. The six animal health categories are health as homeostasis, as normal biological function, as productivity including reproduction, as well-being, as mental and physical control, and as ability to realize goals. Similarities and differences between health concepts for humans, animals, and plants are also discussed to see whether there is a possibility to have a universal definition for plants, animals, and humans.

This chapter analyses attempts made to define health for non-human organisms. This could be done either as a bottom-up approach finding a common denominator that all organisms share, or as a top-down approach which starts with a certain valuable criterion that those organisms share. Through this chapter I will discuss both approaches. I will briefly discuss the concept of organism and why I only choose to discuss biological organisms. This chapter will also further develop a categorization of health definitions that acknowledges the variety of the different kinds of definitions. This is done as a two-level categorization consisting of categories and versions of these categories. I will go through relevant categories and versions in order to be able to say which could be fruitful to use as well as where science needs to be heading.

This thesis is an analysis of the use and definition of the concepts health, well-being and welfare within the field called “the science of animal health and welfare”. The materials used are a literature survey of the field, qualitative interviews with Swedish veterinary surgeons and a study of the concepts in legislation concerning animals in England, Germany and Sweden. The main emphasis has been on theoretical definitions explicitly stated in the different texts or in the interviews. Two ways of distinguishing between animals are used: according to species and according to the role that animals have for humans. As a result it becomes salient whether the definitions have limits with regard to species or role.

In the thesis a great number of definitions of the three concepts are interpreted, compared and criticised. As a result a limited number of definitions have been categorised and collected into clusters which fulfil minimal requirements of consistency and practicability.

The analysis supports the use of all three concepts – health, well-being and welfare – since they are all needed for making crucial distinctions in the science of animal health and welfare.

During the last decade there has been increasing interest in combining veterinary and human medicine, mainly in the areas of vaccination and the eradication of zoonotic and vector-borne diseases. Although the roots of this “One Health-One Medicine” approach can be found in ancient Egypt and Greece, the roots of the philosophy of “one medicine” have not been so thoroughly discussed. In this paper I will analyse some ideas that could unite veterinary and human medicine, from Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902) and Calvin W. Schwabe (1927-2006). Both are recognized as important theoretical founders of the philosophy of one medicine. I will also further develop these thoughts to meet some of the discussions taking place today.

This article analyses the different connotations of "normality" and "being natural," bringing together the theoretical discussion from both human medicine and veterinary medicine. We show how the interpretations of the concepts in the different areas could be mutually fruitful. It appears that the conceptions of "natural" are more elaborate in veterinary medicine, and can be of value to human medicine. In particular they can nuance and correct conceptions of nature in human medicine that may be too idealistic. Correspondingly, the wide ranging conceptions of "normal" in human medicine may enrich conceptions in veterinary medicine, where the discussions seem to be sparse. We do not argue that conceptions from veterinary medicine should be used in human medicine and vice versa, but only that it could be done and that it may well be fruitful. Moreover, there are overlaps between some notions of normal and natural, and further conceptual analysis on this overlap is needed.

Jizz is used by many birders to identify bird species. The definition of jizz differs between authors, but concerns aspects of the bird that are not always easy to define scientifically or describe in objective terms. Rather, impressions of the bird are favoured, including size, shape, behavior and appearance. Here we try to show that jizz is a term worth studying in detail, since its use offers insights in how to identify species, why there are differences among observers in bird surveys and why traditional knowledge about biological diversity might be worth saving when preserving species.

This chapter analyses the concept of One Health and focuses on the two words in the concept with the aim to better explain what the terms ‘one’ and ‘health’ refer to. First, making a distinction between the usage of the terms ‘One Health approaches’, which refers to all appraoches with a multispecies and multi- or interdisciplinary scope, and ‘One Health’, which refers to a specific kind of approach being made. Second, the One Health definition set forth in this book was compared to three other definitions of One Health, and pros and cons were identified. Additionally, the meaning of ‘one’ was discussed, showing the need for an interdisciplinary approach. Finally, the meaning of ‘health’ was shown to be complex, both regarding which definition of health to choose and on which level (individual, population or ecosystem) to apply it. A non-speciesist definition of health is needed, which could be either a bottom up or top-down definition. Further discussions within the One Health approaches are needed.

In this paper I argue for the need of a positive, value-oriented, concept of health. I call it a holistic concept in that it involves looking upon health as having to do with the person as a whole. It is the person as a whole who is healthy or ill. Ill health is here taken to be the opposite of health. A distinctive feature of holistic health is that it is not identical with the absence of diseases or injuries. A concept of this general kind exists already in many areas in society. The most notable exponent of such a concept is the World Health Organization in its many characterizations of health and related concepts. But holistic analyses of health are advocated also by significant representatives of health care and public health and indeed by many theorists of medicine and nursing. A problem with many of these analyses, however, is that they are not carefully formulated and not presented within a strict conceptual theory. I will argue that my own proposal for a theory of health can do much of the work required. The paper has the following structure. First, I take a stand with regard to conceptual analysis and its role in determining the adequacy of definitions of health. Second, I make a brief survey of crucial characterizations of holistic health, both in policy documents and in the scholarly literature. In many of these conceptions the person’s abilities and subjective experiences come to the fore. Third, I consider the use of the term health in the standard medical encounter and in the formulation of goals of medicine. Fourth, I scrutinize some arguments concerning priorities in medicine, where a holistic concept of health plays a crucial role. Finally, I will give a brief outline of my own conceptual theory of holistic health.

For many years, scientists within human and animal science have extensively studied the philosophy of medicine, but never have both sides communicated with each other on the concepts of health, quality of life and welfare. This book aims to help clarify the difficult but central notions of health and welfare by comparing the human and animal variants of these concepts. Split into three parts, this book starts by presenting a background of some of the major theories of human health and welfare, among these are bio-statistical theory, classical theories such as Aristotle and Bentham, as well as objectivist and subjectivist contemporary theories. This is followed by a detailed discussion of theories on animal welfare and health; these include coping, feeling and preference theories. The final part of the book tests a comprehensive conceptual framework of a holistic kind, which focuses on the individual's ability to achieve their vital goals. This book will be of significant interest to students, researchers and debaters of animal ethics and welfare.

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.

I denna bok ger Lennart Nordenfelt en bred redogörelse för Uppsalafilosofen Thorild Dahlquists (1920–2009) liv och gärning som filosof och opinionsbildare. Dahlquist hade en enastående ställning som lärare och forskarhandledare i Uppsala (delvis också i övriga Sverige) trots att han aldrig innehade någon officiell lärostol. Han tjänstgjorde som extralärare och forskarassistent på filosofiska institutionen vid Uppsala universitet i närmare 50 år. Dahlquist uppskattades mycket högt, som lärare, rådgivare och vän, av många årgångar elever liksom av kolleger vid universitetet och andra lärosäten. Dahlquists publikationer är dock fåtaliga och det är svårt att utifrån bilda sig en uppfattning om hans bidrag till svensk filosofi. Nordenfelts avsikt i denna bok är att, framför allt på basis av Dahlquists egna handskrivna texter, ge en så fyllig bild som möjligt av hans ställningstaganden i filosofiska men också politiska frågor. Dahlquist var en av de starkaste och tydligaste förkämparna för den analytiska, ”vetenskapliga”, filosofin i Sverige. I en tid då denna filosofi fått många konkurrenter på de europeiska, inklusive de svenska, universiteten kan det vara av vikt att påminna sig hur de bästa argumenten bakom den analytiska filosofin gestaltar sig. Thorild Dahlquist formulerade under sin levnad många av dessa argument.

In this article I provide an analysis of some salient concepts of dignity. The text is a development of a work which was initiated in the year 2000 in the research programme Dignity and Older Europeans (DOE) supported by the European Union.

The programme was both theoretical and empirical. The empirical part, which was the most comprehensive, consisted of focus-group interviews with health care and social care personnel, elderly persons within health care or social care, and representatives from the general public. The interviews concerned the care of the elderly and attitudes towards the elderly. Some questions concerned how the interviewees conceived the concept of dignity and what they meant by behaviour respectful of dignity in the care of the elderly. Altogether around 1000 focus-group interviews were conducted in seven of the countries involved.

The theoretical part of the programme consisted of an analysis of the concepts of dignity based on studies of dictionary entries in six languages (English, French, Spanish, Slovakish, Polish and Swedish) as well as previous philosophical analyses of the concept.

In the theoretical part of the study there emerged four different concepts of dignity: dignity of merit, dignity of moral standing, dignity of identity and human dignity. Characterizations of these concepts have been presented and developed in several publications, for example Nordenfelt (2004) and (2009).

In the present article this analysis is taken a step further. I take as a starting point some previous studies, including Schroeder (2008), Sulmasy (2013) and my earlier ones, and propose an improvement and clarification of my earlier classification of dignities. At the same time I enlarge the analysis to concern worths in general and how these are attached to entities in general, not just human beings. The four kinds of dignities which I now propose are called: attributed dignity, dignity of inflorescence, dignity of identity and human dignity.

Är Gud annorlunda? är en lärd och tankeväckande religionsfilosofisk essä om Gudsbgreppet, Guds existens och Guds väsen. Lennart Nordenfelt granskar flera viktiga religionskritiska argument, framförda av äldre teoretiker som Bertrand Russell och Ingemar Hedenius, men också några samtida debattörer som Richard Dawkins och Daniel Dennett.

I bokens andra hälft ligger fokus på religionsteorier som avviker från de stora världsreligionernas uppfattningar. Författaren ställer sig till sist frågan: Hur kan en person med en ateistisk eller agnostisk uppfattning förhålla sig till de okonventionella teorierna?

Relationen mellan häst och människa är grundmurad och hästen är idag en omistlig medarbetare inom vård, socialt behandlingsarbete och i pedagogik. Men vilken är egentligen hästens roll i människovårdande relationer?

En rad forskare och lärare med omfattande kunskaper och erfarenheter ger en historisk tillbakablick och granskar hästen läkande och hälsofrämjande insatser i vår tid. De visar hur hästen på olika sätt kan bidra som tredje part i hästunderstödda insatser.

I boken analyseras den terapeutiska relationen, vilken roll hästen har och hur man kan beskriva vad som händer i mötet mellan människa och häst. Här ingår också en checklista baserad på befintlig kunskap som kan användas när hästunderstödda insatser ska utformas i praktiken eller undersökas i forskningen.

Palliative care is provided at a certain timepoint, both in a person's life and in a societal context. What is considered to be a good death can therefore vary over time depending on prevailing social values and norms, and the person's own view and interpretation of life. This means that there are many interpretations of what a good death can actually mean for an individual. On a more general level, research in palliative care shows that individuals have basic common needs, for example physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being. Therefore, in today's pluralistic Western society, it becomes important that palliative care is person centred to enable individuals to receive, as far as can be achieved, care that promotes as good a life as possible based on the person's own needs and preferences, and in accordance with evidence and current laws. For many years a research group, consisting nurse researchers together with nurses working in palliative care, has developed a model for person-centred palliative care, the 6S-model. The model's central concept is Self-image, where the starting point is the patient as a person and their own experience of the situation. The other concepts: Self-determination, Symptom relief, Social relationships, Synthesis and Strategies are all related to the patient's self-image, and often to each other. The model's development, value base and starting assumptions are reported here, as are examples of how the model is applied in palliative care in Sweden. The model has been, and still is, constantly evolving in a collaboration between researchers and clinically active nurses, and in recent years also with patients and close relatives.