In Defense of an Evolutionary Concept of Health: Nature, Norms, and Human Biology - Softcover

Ananth, Mahesh

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1138356085 ISBN 13: 9781138356085

Publisher: Routledge, 2022

Synopsis

One of the most controversial contemporary debates on the concept of health is the clash between the views of naturalists and normativists. Naturalists argue that, although health can be valued or disvalued, the concept of health is itself objective and value-free. In contrast, normativists argue that health is a contextual and value-laden concept, and that there is no possibility of a value-free understanding of health. This debate has fueled many of the, often very acrimonious, disputations arising from the claims of health, disease and disability activists and charities and the public policy responses to them. In responding to this debate, Ananth both surveys the existing literature, with special focus on the work of Christopher Boorse, and argues that a naturalistic concept of health, drawing on evolutionary considerations associated with biological function, homeostasis, and species-design, is defensible without jettisoning norms in their entirety.

About this title

About the Author

Mahesh Ananth

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1138356085
• ISBN 13: 9781138356085
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 254