Amundson
This is the view that there is a statistical normal function for a reference class, which ignore functional diversity.
What is functional determinism?
Boorse needs these to be able to say that something is statistically normal for a particular group.
What is a reference class?
Note: You should include reference classes in your description of naturalism when you are talking about Boorse. They help to establish what is statistically normal for a group.
There are many normativism accounts of the disease concept. Two we read in class are by Amundson and by this author.
Who is Cooper?
Note: it will be easiest to use Cooper's account to develop your normativist argument because Amundson does not develop a full account in his paper.
What is a counterexample?
For example, homosexuality and hysteria seem to be counterexamples to naturalism, but naturalists have a response to make us think that the counterexamples do not work!
This field would be considered a science, according to Fuller, with the unmodified like-comparison criterion alone.
What is homeopathy?
Note: homeopathy did compare groups that were alike, so the criterion is not enough.
This is the view that individuals in a species develop in flexible ways rather than in one uniform way.
What is developmental plasticity?
Naturalists may appeal to this field to argue that the concept of disease is based on objective facts.
What is science/biology/scientific medicine?
Note: naturalists do think that the disease concept is based on objective facts as discovered by scientists.
Cooper argues that someone else this when they have a disease, meaning that we can reasonably expect that someone would not have the condition.
What is unlucky?
If you are seeing the argument for both sides and having trouble deciding, that is great! That means that you really understand each account. You can argue for both, but you should still include this in your essay.
What is a counterargument?
Note: if you argue for both, still include a counterargument from normativism or naturalism. But you can still argue for one and have a very strong essay!
Fuller modifies this criterion to develop his account of medical science.
What is the like-comparison criterion?
Note: he made multiple modifications to this criterion. Not only should the field compare groups that are alike, the results of the comparison should be mechanistically plausible and sensitive to bias.
Amundson thought that this concept in Boorse's view did not help him to achieve statistical normality.
What are reference classes?
Note: Amundson does not need reference classes on his view. He is only arguing that Boorse's reference classes cannot establish statistical normality.
There are many ways that naturalists attempt to refute normativism. One of these ways is to appeal to examples of diseases like tuberculosis to show that these do not play a role in determining that tuberculosis is a disease.
What are values?
Normativists think that the disease concept is an example of one of these.
What is a social construct?
Note: all social constructs are based on values and would not exist without a society to construct them.
When constructing your argument for normativism or naturalism, your argument should explain why scientists think that some condition is a disease. This view just thinks that values are a part of science.
What is normativism?
When we say that, according to our best science, there is no mechanism to explain how the treatment works, we are saying that the treatment does not have this.
What is mechanistic plausibility?
We should think that people with disabilities vary in this aspect of function, according to Amundson.
What is functional mode?
Naturalists think the concept of disease is free from these things that are subjectively determined by societal standards.
What are values?
Normativists do not think that science is bad or wrong. Rather, they think that what scientists determine to be a disease is based on these.
What are values or judgments about what's undesirable or bad?
Note: In part, the debate is about how scientists determine that something is a disease, so both sides think that science determines what a disease is!
It should be the case that, for every example of a disease, normativism and naturalism will be able to explain why it is a disease. But their views may imply that unwanted pregnancy, aging, or baldness are diseases, which go against our intuitions. These examples are called this.
What are counterexamples?
Whereas causal biological factors are mechanisms that explain signs and symptoms, biomarkers are factors that are measured to do this.
What is diagnose?
Note: normativists and naturalists both think that causal factors and biomarkers do these things. They disagree about why we think the signs, symptoms, and biomarkers are considered important.
Given appropriate tools and environment, someone with a disability can achieve the same measure of this.
What is level of functionality?
Naturalists could argue that plague and tuberculosis involve biophysiological dysfunction and so show that disease is a naturalist concept. Normativists may provide a counterargument that plague and tuberculosis were bad, medically treatable, and people were unlucky to have them. The naturalist may respond that, both were considered disease across time and by various societies, which shows disease is not this.
What is a social construct/value-laden?
One could argue that homosexuality was a disease because normativism is right. This is the naturalist's counterargument.
What is the fact that science makes progress in identifying objective biostatistical functions?
This author showed that simply saying that something is a dysfunction is not enough to support naturalism, as whether something is performing its function or not depends on societal standards, environments, and values.
Who is Amundson?
In lecture, I discussed a couple of ways that Western society has changed its views on disease. For example, Semmelweis's analysis of why many woman were dying in childbirth in a certain ward helped in the development of this view of diseases.
What is germ theory?