Haven't we been doing something like that as medical science progresses. A lot of physical conditions that used to be accepted as a normal part of the human condition have, for better or worse, gotten redefined as diseases, especially when medical science seemed to offer possible treatments to alleviate them (whether efficacious or not).
This is especially true in psychiatry.
Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant
---------- Original Message ---------- From: Chris Doss <lookoverhere1 at yahoo.com> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Philip Mirowski - Social Physicist Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2010 11:50:57 -0800 (PST)
I didn't say anything about reasons to get rid of disease, but talked about what the concept of disease vs. health depends upon. But doesn't this line below, in simply equating disease with things about my body or mind that make me uncomfortable, kind of logically get rid of the concept of disease? You could argue that people would be better off (happier, more efficient) if they all had a dog's sense of smell. Therefore, not having a dog's sense of smell is unhealthy and a disease and we should give everybody bionic noses to cure them.
----- Original Message ---- From: Somebody Somebody <philos_case at yahoo.com>
Somebody: Of course, there's another criterion, which is to say that we should combat disease according to a hedonic calculus, not because of some appeal to the norm. Thus, there are people, like Aubrey de Gray, who are seeking to extend human life and who see the "natural" process of death as not qualitatively distinct from dying from cardiovascular disease or from cancer. Similarly, there's the school of positive psychology that focuses on improving the quality of life, not merely treating mental illness.
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