95824 - Phylosophyof Health

Learning outcomes

The philosophy of health reflects critically on the concepts of health, wellbeing and quality of life, as they are employed in scientific research. This course introduces to the main concepts and definitions of health and wellbeing in philosophy and in the biomedical sciences; to recognze the interplay of facts and values in defining health and related concepts; the indvidual and social dimensions of health and wellbeing; some ethical aspects of health communication

Course contents

We'll see that wellbeing concepts have objective components, such as absene of bodily dysfunctions and availability of material goods, subjective components, such as happiness, pleasure and tranquility, and also value components, depending on what we value as good and interesting in life.

This is an introductory course and familiarity with philosophy or with the history of philosophy is neither required nor recommended.

Analysis of concepts and applied philosophy of science are the methods employed in this course. 

Topics covered:

1. Definitions of health: absence of disease, health as ability, complete well-being, balance

2. Being well as an ideal goal in life: philosophical theories

3. Some models of well-being

4. Measuring health and well-being: theoretical and practical issues

5. Nutrition studies, problems of method and of communication

6. Notions of ethics and bioethics

7. Diets: moral and cultural choices

8. Obesity, body positivity and other controversial concepts

Readings/Bibliography

For the exam you are required to study:

- Slides of the classes

- E. Lalumera (2023) Stare bene. Un'analisi Filosofica. Bologna: il Mulino.

 

For each topic, classes will be based on 2-3 published articles or short books  (in English). Reading them before classes makes participation easier and allow for a more enjoyable experience of the course. They are optional readings.

All the articles and other materials (videos etc.) will be posted on Virtuale from the 1st week of the course.

This course is a hybrid teaching course (10 hrs will be online, with modalities and calendar specified in the first week)

This course offers integrative teaching (all classes will be recorded)

Teaching methods

Traditional lectures. Guided discussions.

This course is a hybrid teaching course (10 hours will be online) and an integrative teaching course (all face-to-face lectures will be recorded)

Assessment methods

Written test with 16 open questions.

Maximum score 32 (30 e lode) 

This is one module of an integrated course. Final grade of the integrated course is the average of the two grades obtained in each module.

Teaching tools

Pdf and ppt files of classes, articles and some videos.

Office hours

See the website of Elisabetta Lalumera