As I recently mentioned in my blog post Definitions: Healthcare’s Rabbit Hole, one of my deep projects is to understand the ethics of AI in healthcare. However, to do this well I feel I need to first understand what health means, or at least have a good definition of the word health.
But how will I know if I have arrived at a good definition of health? Or, more generally, how do I know if I have arrived at a good definition of anything?
And so that’s this month’s project. What exactly is a definition, and what makes it a good one?
Now, a reasonable question to ask is whether or not this is worth the effort. Does this have any practical application within healthcare, or is this just a philosophical amusement?
I believe knowing we have a good definition of health has significant practical applications. For example, consider one of the current hot debates: Is there such a thing as “healthy obesity”?
This is a question that has deep personal and financial implications for patients, physicians, healthcare institutions, and insurance companies, because if (a very big if) all parties agreed on a definition of health and a definition of obesity, then the answer to this question becomes trivial , but without that a priori agreement these interested parties can’t even have a meaningful conversation because they will each be talking about different things. When talking about health, its essential to first agree of the definition of terms (at least for the duration of the conversation), otherwise it just becomes a cacophony of opinions, leading to frustration and obstruction.
So, I do think it clarifying what a definition is, and applying that to a definition of health is worth the effort, but then how should I approach getting to this point?
First—and acknowledging that the concept of definition within the philosophical literature is in itself complex and controversial—I will work through some of the standard sources, including The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (published by Colliers) and the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy to help get a sense of some of the philosophical work already done regarding the theory of definition. Second, I will also do my best to incorporate some original writings of philosophers who have also approached this subject. And finally, to make this more relevant for my blog, I will do my best to employ practical examples within healthcare, especially about the definition of health itself.
So, my hope is by the end of this little project—which will probably take about a month—I hope to have a working structure on the various types of definitions that can be then applied to help understand what health is.
Watch this space!