Health, consciousness, and the evolution of subjects

Synthese 201 (1):1-24 (2022)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The goal of this programmatic paper is to highlight a close connection between the core problem in the philosophy of medicine, i.e. the concept of health, and the core problem of the philosophy of mind, i.e. the concept of consciousness. I show when we look at these phenomena together, taking the evolutionary perspective of modern state-based behavioural and life-history theory used as the teleonomic tool to Darwinize the agent- and subject-side of organisms, we will be in a better position to make sense of them both as natural phenomena.

Similar books and articles

Health as Expanding Consciousness.Margaret A. Newman - 1999 - Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Cancer Chemotherapy Care Plans Handbook.Barbara Sarter - 2002 - Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Consciousness as an Adaptation. What animals feel and why.Pouwel Slurink - 2016 - In Andreas Blank (ed.), Animals: New Essays. Munich: Philosophia. pp. 303-332.
Evolutionary explanation and the hard problem of consciousness.Steven Horst - 1999 - Journal of Consciousness Studies 6 (1):39-48.
Evolutionary Biology and the Concept of Disease.Anne Gammelgaard - 2000 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy: A European Journal 3 (2):109-116.
Adaptive complexity and phenomenal consciousness.Shaun Nichols & Todd Grantham - 2000 - Philosophy of Science 67 (4):648-670.
Evolutionary biology and the concept of disease.Anne Gammelgaard - 2000 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 3 (2):109-116.
The evolution of consciousness.Peter Carruthers - 2000 - In Peter Carruthers & A. Chamberlain (eds.), Evolution and the Human Mind: Modularity, Language and Meta-Cognition. Cambridge University Press. pp. 254.

Analytics

Added to PP
2022-11-30

Downloads
253 (#76,907)

6 months
132 (#24,895)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Walter Veit
University of Reading

Citations of this work

Complexity and the Evolution of Consciousness.Walter Veit - 2023 - Biological Theory 18 (3):175-190.
Towards a Comparative Study of Animal Consciousness.Walter Veit - 2022 - Biological Theory 17 (4):292-303.
Scaffolding Natural Selection.Walter Veit - 2022 - Biological Theory 17 (2):163-180.
Metaphors in arts and science.Walter Veit & Ney Milan - 2021 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 11 (2):1-24.

View all 9 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

Biological normativity: a new hope for naturalism?Walter Veit - 2021 - Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 24 (2):291-301.
Complexity and the Evolution of Consciousness.Walter Veit - 2023 - Biological Theory 18 (3):175-190.
Health as a theoretical concept.Christopher Boorse - 1977 - Philosophy of Science 44 (4):542-573.
Towards a Comparative Study of Animal Consciousness.Walter Veit - 2022 - Biological Theory 17 (4):292-303.

View all 30 references / Add more references