Volume 35, 2019
Health, Well-Being, and Society
Matthew R. Silliman
Pages 115-128
https://doi.org/10.5840/socphiltoday2019102166
Staying Well in Heraclitus¡¯s River
This philosophical dialogue explores some of the barriers to an adequate definition of general health, encompassing physical, social, and mental/emotional well-being. Many of the putative obstacles to such a definition¡ªconcerns about subjectivity, cultural difference, marginal cases, etc.¡ªprove to be chimerical once the characters take seriously the Peircean insight that truth-claims methodologically grounded in people¡¯s lives, experiences, and conversations need not be apodictic to be useful. Drawing on Canguilhem and others, the characters critically discuss a proposed definition of health: a dynamic equilibrium by which a human being thrives in relation to its situation. Although they do not manage to resolve all of this definition¡¯s difficulties, or all of their differences, their interaction in some ways models the ongoing task of inquiry.