Skip Navigation



The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science Advance Access published online on August 24, 2009
The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, doi:10.1093/bjps/axp034
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Kingma, E.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of British Society for the Philosophy of Science (2009). For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Paracetamol, Poison, and Polio: Why Boorse's Account of Function Fails to Distinguish Health and Disease

Elselijn Kingma

Department of Bioethics Clinical Centre, National Institutes of Health 10 Center Drive, Room 1C118 Bethesda, MD 20892, USA kingmae{at}cc.nih.gov


  Abstract

Christopher Boorse's Bio Statistical Theory (BST) defines health as the absence of disease, and disease as the adverse departure from normal species functioning. This paper presents a two-pronged problem for this account. First I demonstrate that, in order to accurately account for dynamic physiological functions, Boorse's account of normal function needs to be modified to index functions against situations. I then demonstrate that if functions are indexed against situations, the BST can no longer account for diseases that result from specific environmental factors. The BST is impaled on either horn of this dilemma and therefore must be dismissed.

1 A More Sophisticated Version of the BST
1.1 Normal function
1.2 Health as a quantitative normal function
1.3 Dispositional function
1.4 Situation-specific function
1.5 Summary and justification

2 An Inescapable Problem
2.1 Harmful environments and situation-specific diseases
2.2 A detailed example
2.3 Two possible replies refuted
2.4 Conclusion of Section 2

3 Potential Ways out of the Dilemma
3.1 Distinguishing between harmful and normal situations
3.2 First solution: Statistically abnormal environments
3.2.1 Rare non-harmful environments
3.2.2 Harmful non-rare environments

3.3 Second solution: Adverse environments
3.4 Third solution: Non-natural environments
3.5 Interim conclusion and diagnosis
3.6 Abusing the function concept?

4 The BST Refuted
4.1 A central tension
4.2 Differences with previous arguments
4.3 Conclusion


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.