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Surveying Low-Cost Methods to Measure Lifespan and Healthspan in Caenorhabditis elegans

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Defining 'health' and 'disease'.

Marc Ereshefsky¹

¹Department of Philosophy, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada. ereshefs@ucalgary.ca

Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences

|September 2, 2009

Summary

Defining health and disease is complex. This study proposes distinguishing between state descriptions and normative claims, offering a clearer approach than naturalist, normativist, or hybrid theories.

Area of Science:

Philosophy of Medicine
Medical Ethics
Conceptual Analysis

Background:

The definitions of 'health' and 'disease' are debated among naturalists, normativists, and hybrid theorists.
Existing definitions face significant conceptual challenges within the philosophy of medicine.

Purpose of the Study:

To critically evaluate current naturalist, normativist, and hybrid approaches to defining health and disease.
To propose an alternative framework for understanding health and disease concepts in medical discourse.

Main Methods:

Conceptual analysis of philosophical positions on health and disease.
Distinguishing between descriptive and normative elements in medical language.
Evaluating the proposed framework against existing theories.

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Main Results:

Naturalist, normativist, and hybrid theories present inherent problems in defining health and disease.
An alternative approach focusing on state descriptions and normative claims offers a more robust framework.
This distinction better reflects the practical considerations in medical discussions.

Conclusions:

The debate over defining health and disease can be reframed by separating factual state descriptions from value-laden normative claims.
This conceptual distinction provides a clearer and more practical way to analyze medical concepts.
The proposed approach avoids the pitfalls of existing definitions and better captures the essence of medical discourse.