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Health as a Secondary Property
1African Centre for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science, Department of Philosophy, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa.
The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
|May 16, 2019
Summary
This study re-evaluates the concepts of naturalism and normativism in health, proposing health as a secondary property. This framework offers an evolutionary explanation for the concept of health, distinct from existing natural function theories.
Area of Science:
- Philosophy of Medicine
- Philosophy of Biology
Background:
- Traditional views of health naturalism and normativism are based on opposing stances regarding objectivity and value-freedom.
- Disagreements about health can be categorized along two dimensions: objectivity and value-ladenness.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce a novel framework for understanding health as a secondary property.
- To address limitations in existing naturalistic accounts of health, particularly the Boorsean model.
- To provide an evolutionary explanation for the concept of health.
Main Methods:
- Conceptual analysis of naturalism, normativism, and secondary properties.
- Development of a two-by-two matrix to map different positions on health's objectivity and value-ladenness.
- Argumentation for health as a secondary property and its implications for naturalistic accounts.
Main Results:
- Health can be conceptualized as a secondary property, being value-free yet non-objective.
- This secondary property framework resolves key objections to the Boorsean account of natural function.
- An evolutionary explanation for the concept of health is provided, linking it to survival and reproduction.
Conclusions:
- Viewing health as a secondary property offers a robust naturalistic framework.
- This perspective reconciles the objectivity and value-ladenness of health concepts.
- The proposed model provides a more complete explanation for the functional basis of health than previous theories.
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