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Health as an analogical concept

R Mordacci1

  • 1Department of Medical Humanities, Fondazione Centro San Raffaele del Monte Tabor, Milano, Italy.

The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy
|October 1, 1995
PubMed
Summary

This study argues health logically precedes illness, using a phenomenological-hermeneutic framework. It defines health as an analogy of

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Area of Science:

  • Philosophy of Medicine
  • Phenomenology
  • Hermeneutics

Background:

  • The concept of health is often defined by its relation to illness.
  • Existing definitions of health, both bio-statistical and normative, have limitations.
  • The literature highlights the 'norm' as a key feature in defining health.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the normative structure of the concept of health.
  • To propose a phenomenological-hermeneutic framework for understanding health.
  • To analyze the logical and experiential priority of health over illness.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of existing literature on the concept of health and illness.
  • Application of a phenomenological-hermeneutic approach.
  • Examination of the analogical structure of language and etymologies related to health.

Main Results:

  • Health has logical priority over illness, while illness has experiential priority.
  • Critique of bio-statistical and value-relative normative definitions of health.
  • Health is characterized as an analogy of 'plenitude'.

Conclusions:

  • The analogical structure of language reveals multiple levels of normativeness (biological, mental, social, moral).
  • A new framework for understanding health based on 'plenitude' and linguistic analogy is proposed.
  • This framework offers insights for a broader theory of health.

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