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Evaluation and Explanation in the Biomedical Sciences pp 143–150Cite as

On Disease: Theories of Disease and the Ascription of Disease: Comments on “The Concepts of Health and Disease”

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Part of the book series: Philosophy and Medicine ((PHME,volume 1))

Abstract

Dr. Engelhardt has argued that the concept of disease is ambiguous because it has both an explanatory and an evaluative role.1 I would like to examine this. To do so I will begin by distinguishing between theories of disease on the one hand and the ascription of disease on the other.

This paper was completed with the aid of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Younger Humanist Grant, 1973–1974.

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Notes

  1. Lester King, “What is Disease?,” Philosophy of Science 21 (July 1954), 194.

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  2. M. M. Wintrobe, Clinical Hematology,6th ed. (Philadelphia: Lea and Febig, 1967), pp. 690 and 705.

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  3. See, for example, the discussion in Psychopathology Today,ed. by William S. Sahakian (Itasca, Illinois: F. E. Peacock, 1970). Of particular interest in this regard are articles by Thomas Szasz, “Repudiation of the Medical Model,” pp. 47–53

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  4. Mental Health and Mental Illness: Some Problems of Definition and Concept Formation,“ Philosophy of Science 39 (September 1972), 341–365.

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  5. Marie Jahoda, Current Concepts of Positive Mental Health (New York/London: Basic Books, 1958), chap. II.

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  6. S. Krugman and R. Ward, Infectious Diseases of Children and Adults, 5th ed. ( St. Louis: C. V. Mosby Co., 1973 ), p. 277.

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  7. Owsei Temkin, The Falling Sickness,2nd ed., rev. (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1971), p. 4, pp. 153–154.

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  8. René and Jean Dubos, “Consumption and the Romantic Age,” in The White Plague (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1952), chap. 5.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Rochester School of Medicine, Rochester, New York, USA

    Loretta Kopelman

Authors
  1. Loretta Kopelman
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Tex., USA

    H. Tristram Engelhardt Jr.

  2. University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Conn., USA

    Stuart F. Spicker

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© 1975 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland

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Kopelman, L. (1975). On Disease: Theories of Disease and the Ascription of Disease: Comments on “The Concepts of Health and Disease”. In: Engelhardt, H.T., Spicker, S.F. (eds) Evaluation and Explanation in the Biomedical Sciences. Philosophy and Medicine, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1769-5_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1769-5_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-1771-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-1769-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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