What Is Disease? / edited by James M. Humber, Robert F. Almeder.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Humber, James M., Editor.

Almeder, Robert F., Editor.

Series:

Biomedical Ethics Reviews

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bioethics.

Local Subjects:

Bioethics.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (IX, 361 p.)

Edition:

1st ed. 1997.

Place of Publication:

Totowa, NJ : Humana Press : Imprint: Humana, 1997.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In What is Disease?, renowned philosophers and medical ethicists survey and elucidate the profoundly important concepts of disease and health. Christopher Boorse begins with an extensive reexamination of his seminal definition of disease as a value-free scientific concept. In responding to all those who criticized this view, which came to be called "naturalism" or "neutralism," Boorse clarifies and updates his landmark ideas on this crucial question. Other distinguished thinkers analyze, develop, and oftentimes defend competing, nonnaturalistic theories of disease, including discussions of the relevance of these concepts to the question of "diseased" sexual orientation and to alternative medicine. What is Disease? brings concerned readers up-to-date in the debate over the proper definition of "disease," a concept of central importance not only for bioethicists, but also for those throughout clinical medicine, sociology, psychology, and law who deal with disease and its associated problems on an everyday basis.

Contents:

A Rebuttal on Health

Defining Disease: The Question of Sexual Orientation

Malady

Toward a Pragmatic Theory of Disease

Defining Disease: Praxis Makes Perfect

Disease: Definition and Objectivity

Disease and Subjectivity

The Concept of Disease in Alternative Medicine.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

1-61737-015-0

1-280-83613-X

9786610836130

1-59259-451-4