The Philosophy of Disease

Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Introduction
1. The Concept of Disease in Clinical Medicine
The maximally value laden conception - Rachel Cooper on disease
The pure statistical conception
The frequency and negative consequences approach, and the line-drawing problem
The etiological account of function, and disease as harmful dysfunction
Disease as harmful function - 'drawing the line' on the etiological account of disease
2. What is a Pathological Condition?
Boorse's naturalism
Objections to Boorse's naturalism
The frequency and negative consequences approach revisited
The etiological theory of pathological condition
3. Concepts of Causation in the Philosophy of Disease
Causation as counterfactual dependence
Clinical medicine and the dispositional account of causation
The classification of diseases, and the sufficient-cause model of causation
4. Causal Inference in Public Health
Hill's criteria and the evidence-based medicine evidence hierarchy
The epidemiologist's potential outcomes approach
Hernan and Taubman's potential outcomes approach
Diffusing Broadbent - a Popperian take on the potential outcomes approach
The importance of nonmanipulable causes
5. Concluding Remarks