Health and disease: two philosophical perspectives.

Is there a philosopher's approach to the concepts of health and disease? Are there any particularly philosophical concepts concerning medical affairs? What point could there be in the existence of such concepts? These questions seem to be well motivated by the title of this paper. What use can a scholarly and humanistic discipline be to a rapidly expanding science such as medicine? Let us first notice that the relation between medicine and philosophy is not something that has recently emerged. Many of the ancient and mediaeval doctors were also philosophers. The ideas of Plato and Aristotle deeply influenced medical thinking until the 17th century. Many of the most prominent medical theorists of later times, let us just mention Boerhaave, Cullen, and Bernard, had a deep philosophical training and made use of such insights in their theoretical constructions. It is true, however, that western medicine ofthe 20th century has lost some of its philosophical background