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Clinical Problems and the Concept of Disease

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Health, Disease, and Causal Explanations in Medicine

Part of the book series: Philosophy and Medicine ((PHME,volume 16))

Abstract

Language itself can misguide, and concepts by their very character can misdirect us. Disease concepts have suffered from the assumption that they name things in the world in a value-free fashion. They are instead goal-directed notions. The history of medicine shows some of the roots of this confusion in the process of transforming clinical problems into disease entities. Even ancient medicine offers such puzzles concerning the nature of concepts of health and disease. Indeed, there is some evidence that the physicians of Cos and Cnidos were in disagreement concerning what should count as a single disease entity. The physicians at Cnidos, it would appear, held that even minor differences in symptoms justified the creation of a new classificatory unit ([25], p. xiii). These disputes set the stage for a long history of contention with regard to whether diseases have a reality in and of themselves, or whether they are the creations of physicians. Views of the first sort have supported the notion that diseases are in some sense beings or entities, entia morborum. Individuals supporting such understandings of disease have been termed ontologies.1

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA

    H. Tristram Engelhardt Jr.

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  1. H. Tristram Engelhardt Jr.
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden

    Lennart Nordenfelt

  2. Huddinge University Hospital, Huddinge, Sweden

    B. Ingemar B. Lindahl

  3. University of Stockholm, Sweden

    B. Ingemar B. Lindahl

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© 1984 D. Reidel Publishing Company

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Engelhardt, H.T. (1984). Clinical Problems and the Concept of Disease. In: Nordenfelt, L., Lindahl, B.I.B. (eds) Health, Disease, and Causal Explanations in Medicine. Philosophy and Medicine, vol 16. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-6283-5_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-6283-5_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-009-6285-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-6283-5

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