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Action, Ability and Health

Essays in the Philosophy of Action and Welfare

  • Book
  • © 2000

Overview

Authors:
  1. Lennart Nordenfelt

    1. Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden

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Part of the book series: International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine (LIME, volume 1)

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvii
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  2. Action Theory

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. Towards an Ontology of Episodes

      • Lennart Nordenfelt
      Pages 3-13

    3. Towards an Analysis of the Concept of Action

      • Lennart Nordenfelt
      Pages 15-22

    4. On Embedded Actions: Accomplishments and Projects

      • Lennart Nordenfelt
      Pages 23-27

    5. On the Explanation and Determination of Actions

      • Lennart Nordenfelt
      Pages 29-46

    6. On the Logical Form of Action-Explanations

      • Lennart Nordenfelt
      Pages 47-56

    7. On the Logical Form of Interaction

      • Lennart Nordenfelt
      Pages 57-64

    8. Towards a Theory of Ability and Disability

      • Lennart Nordenfelt
      Pages 65-74

  3. Action-Theory as a Basis for the Theories of Health and Welfare

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 75-75
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    2. On the Notion of Health as Ability

      • Lennart Nordenfelt
      Pages 77-83

    3. On the Concepts of Vital Goal and Happiness

      • Lennart Nordenfelt
      Pages 85-105

    4. On the Multiplicity of Health Concepts

      • Lennart Nordenfelt
      Pages 107-114

  4. Action-Theoretic Applications in the Theory of Health and Health Care

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 115-115
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    2. On the Technical Notions of Disability and Handicap: The WHO Context

      • Lennart Nordenfelt
      Pages 117-128

    3. On the Complexity of Autonomy

      • Lennart Nordenfelt
      Pages 129-134

    4. A Sketch for a Theory of Health Enhancement

      • Lennart Nordenfelt
      Pages 135-142

    5. On the Role of Compulsion in Mental Illness. The Case of Forensic Psychiatry

      • Lennart Nordenfelt
      Pages 143-157

  5. Back Matter

    Pages 159-173
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Keywords

About this book

This book is a part of the ongoing enterprise to understand the nature of human health and illness. This enterprise has expanded dramatically during the last decades. A great number of articles, as weIl as a fair number of monographs, on this topic have been published by renowned international publishers. In this discussion most participants share the idea that health is a partially normative concept, Le. that health is not a phe­ nomenon which can be wholly characterised in biological (or otherwise descriptive) terms. To ascribe health to a person is eo ipso, according to this line of thought, to as­ cribe a positively evaluated property to this person. Moreover, most debators share the idea that health is a holistic property, belonging to the person as a whole, whereas dis­ eases, injuries and defects are entities (or properties of entities) which can be very lim­ ited and and normally affect only a part of the individual. My own monograph belongs to this tradition. A feature of my position, which is not universally acknowledged in riyal theories, however, is my emphasis on the notion of ability as a fundament in the theory of health. In my formal characterisation of health I view it as astate of a person which is such that the person has the ability to fulfi1 his or her vital goals.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden

    Lennart Nordenfelt

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