The Concept of Disease in Clinical Medicine

Abstract

This chapter asks the question: ‘what, for the clinician, is disease?’ Of all the tasks philosophers undertake, I consider the conceptual analysis of disease to be of particular importance — and for obvious reasons. For one, one’s disease status can have significant consequences. In the following sections I outline three prominent conceptions of disease, looking for that best suited to clinical medicine: those proposed by Rachel Cooper (2002), Peter Schwartz (2007), and Jerome Wakefield (1992, 1999). I dismiss Cooper’s view based on clear cut counterexamples, but show that significant parts of both Wakefield and Schwartz’s views are compelling. I conclude with a fourth proposal (which draws on both Wakefield and Schwartz), providing an etiological theory of disease in clinical medicine.