What is Health

Introduction

If medicine's primary purpose is to maintain and restore health, then must understand "health"

1. Health is more than physical biology

1. illness is an attactk on the whole person
2. health involves physical, psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions
3. restoring health is a restoration of integrity; it's an empowerment

1. Relationship between health and power

1. power--the means by which one achieves a goal
2. one's "telos" determines the kind, extent, and legitimacy of power

1. The kinds of telos at play in the desire for health

1. the telos of "autonomous individualism"--self-determining in which we accept those restrcitions of our own choosing

1. expect health care to promote autonomy
2. to cure diseases and prolong lives
3. to gain more control over one's self and destiny
4. medicine becomes a "theodicy"--we can justify ourselves in light of suffering
5. must constantly overcome medicine's limitations

1. the telos of embodying and promoting a spiritual-moral tradition

1. this legacy gives a narrative unity to the person
2. life's value in found in promoting it
3. the goal is to embody the tradition

1. found in community
2. expressed in education of next generation

1. medicine's value is to help one promote this goal
2. medicine's limits are not a sign of weakness or failure