The DOI matches its Crossref record; 20 of the 20 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 1 of the 30 sources its claims cite were checked for support.
Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts
Open accessAbstract
Concepts such as disease and health can be difficult to define precisely. Part of the reason for this is that they embody value judgments and are rooted in metaphor. The precise meaning of terms like health, healing and wholeness is likely to remain elusive, because the disconcerting openness of the outlook gained from experience alone resists the reduction of first-person judgments (including those of religion) to third-person explanations (including those of science).
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In the paper
“those with a psychiatric disease than those with a surgical one”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > A medical definition
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [2] 1975, Journal of Medical Ethics
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
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In the paper
“Those with a chronic disease are much less secure than those with an acute one”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > A medical definition
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [2] 1975, Journal of Medical Ethics
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
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In the paper
“Science no longer confronts nature as an objective observer, but sees itself as an actor in this interplay between man and nature.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Interplay
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [19] Heisenberg W. The physicist's conception of nature. London: Hutchinson, 1958: 29.
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
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In the paper
“The part that scientists remove is themselves as conscious knowing subjects.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > The scientific picture
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [17] Schrödinger E. What is life? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1967: 118f.
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
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In the paper
“That conclusion, however, fails to fit all the facts.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > The scientific picture
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [17] Schrödinger E. What is life? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1967: 118f.
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
Load-bearingStrength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes? Checkable: unclear✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passes- Not matched
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“science provides part of the explanation of why definitions of health are, and are likely to remain, elusive.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Interplay
Tests✓ Asserted: passes? Checkable: unclear✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesA conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“In the past, it has done this, often very successfully, in terms of scientific or pre-scientific ideas which at the time seemed plausible to everyone.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Religious ideas
Strength:boosted· not yet calibratedCausal:direct· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes? Load-bearing: unclear✓ Based: passesIn the paper
“Insights such as Schrödinger's have not been lost on many more perceptive modern religious thinkers, who see no necessary conflict between religious and scientific ideas.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Religious ideas
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [21] Schrödinger E. Nature and the Greeks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1996:6.
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
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- Probably not a substantial claim. 49
- It may state two separate claims as one. 24
- The quote only partly states this claim. 1
The cited sources that could be checked couldn’t confirm or dispute this claim.
In the paper
“A classic example is Munchausen's syndrome, the diagnostic label applied to people who repeatedly present themselves to hospitals with convincing symptoms, often demanding and sometimes undergoing surgery which reveals no organic disorder.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Munchausen's syndrome
What the sources say
- Could not verifycites [6] Walton J, Barondess JA, Lock L, eds. The Oxford medical companion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994: 611. sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured
The cited paper’s “Second Edition” section reviews the Oxford Companion to Medicine but does not discuss Munchausen’s syndrome or describe repeated hospital presentations, surgery, or the absence of organic disease. Searches for the syndrome and those diagnostic features found no relevant passage in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.78)
- Not matchedcites [7] Youngson RM. Collins dictionary of medicine. Glasgow: HarperCollins, 1992: 406.
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
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In the paper
“There is a rather unhelpful circularity about these dictionary definitions.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Dictionary definitions
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [1] Brown L, ed. The new shorter English dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
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A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Concepts such as disease and health can be diYcult to define precisely.Part of the reason for this is that they embody value judgments and are rooted in metaphor.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Abstract
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The precise meaning of terms like health, healing and wholeness is likely to remain elusive, because the disconcerting openness of the outlook gained from experience alone resists the reduction of first-person judgments (including those of religion) to third-person explanations (including those of science).”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Abstract
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Disease ... is a pathological process, most often physical as in throat infection, or cancer of the bronchus, sometimes undetermined in origin, as in schizophrenia.The quality which identifies disease is some deviation from a biological norm.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > A medical definition
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [2] 1975, Journal of Medical Ethics
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
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In the paper
“The security of this role depends on a number of factors, not least the possession of that much treasured gift, the disease.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > A medical definition
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [2] 1975, Journal of Medical Ethics
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
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In the paper
“Sickness ... is the external and public mode of unhealth.Sickness is a social role, a status, a negotiated position in the world, a bargain struck between the person henceforward called 'sick', and a society which is prepared to recognise and sustain him.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > A medical definition
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [2] 1975, Journal of Medical Ethics
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
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In the paper
“Sickness based on illness alone is a most uncertain status.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > A medical definition
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [2] 1975, Journal of Medical Ethics
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
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In the paper
“Illness ... is a feeling, an experience of unhealth which is entirely personal, interior to the person of the patient.Often it accompanies disease, but the disease may be undeclared, as in the early stages of cancer or tuberculosis or diabetes.Sometimes illness exists where no disease can be found.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > A medical definition
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [2] 1975, Journal of Medical Ethics
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. It may state two separate claims as one.
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The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“But dictionaries of the English language usually only aim to tell us the origins of words and how they have been used historically.They do not aim at the much more contestable goal of conceptual clarity.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Dictionary definitions
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In the paper
“Even the determination of what health means for your body depends on your goal, your horizon, your energies, your drives, your errors, and above all on the ideals and phantasms of your soul.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > No health as such
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [14] Nietzsche F. The gay science. [Translated by W Kaufmann.] New York: Vintage Books, 1974: book III, section 120.
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
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In the paper
“But even when we have taken all these factors into account, we cannot quantify how healthy an individual is with any precision.That is not just because the sum is complex.It is also, Downie concludes, agreeing with Hare, because the components include value judgments.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Health
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [11] Downie RS, Fyfe C, Tannahill A. Health promotion: models and values. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. source
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In the paper
“the object is aVected by our observation.You cannot obtain any knowledge about an object while leaving it strictly isolated”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Interplay
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [17] Schrödinger E. What is life? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1967: 118f.
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
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None of the sources cited for this claim could be matched to a paper in Crossref, so there is nothing to check it against.
In the paper
“to be healthy is not to correspond with some fixed norm, but to make the most of one's life in whatever circumstances one finds oneself, including those which in terms of some fixed norms may seem severely impaired or unhealthy.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Normal and normative
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [15] Canguilhem G. The normal and the pathological. New York: Zone Books, 1991: 196f.
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- Not matchedcites [16] See reference 15: 201.
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
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A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Whether such counterintuitive meanings are entertained of course, depends on whether the viewpoint of the conscious knowing subject is given at least as much weight as that of the clinical observer.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Religious expectancy
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.
In the paper
“The latter, Canguilhem argues, is the true view of normality.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Normal and normative
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [15] Canguilhem G. The normal and the pathological. New York: Zone Books, 1991: 196f.
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
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A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“But whether or not religious experience and expectancy represent more than psychological reality, remains part of the disconcerting openness of human experience, which can be closed or rounded oV no more conclusively by scientific experiment than by religious dogma.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Religious expectancy
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In the paper
“Thus there are innumerable healths of the body”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > No health as such
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [14] Nietzsche F. The gay science. [Translated by W Kaufmann.] New York: Vintage Books, 1974: book III, section 120.
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
Load-bearingStrength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.
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A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Whether or not someone is ill, is something the person concerned ultimately must decide for him-or her-self.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Popular and literary definitions
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedCausal:direct· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Another way of understanding this, I think, has to do with the important part played by metaphor in the development of thought and language.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Health
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In the paper
“Nor is fitness suYcient: the kind of fitness sought in athletic training, indeed, is sometimes detrimental to physical health; and the desire to maximise physical fitness as an end in itself may become an unhealthy obsession.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Health
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [11] Downie RS, Fyfe C, Tannahill A. Health promotion: models and values. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. source
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Healing is understood by religion not only as the natural process of tissue regeneration sometimes assisted by medical means, but also as whatever process results in the experience of greater wholeness of the human spirit.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Wholeness, healing and death
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“One reason then, why definitions of disease and health are sometimes so frustratingly elusive is the part played by value judgments in determining what we mean by disease and health as well as what we mean by illness and sickness.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Kenneth M Boyd is Senior Lecturer in Medical Ethics, Edinburgh University Medical School and Research Director, Institute of Medical Ethics.
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.
- Rests on an assumption: Most people in our society make the same or similar value judgments about what disease, illness, sickness, and health words mean and what are examples of what they mean.
- Rests on an assumption: There is a common core of ideas about what disease is or what health is.
In the paper
“health is not a matter of getting back from illness, but getting over and perhaps beyond it.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Normal and normative
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [15] Canguilhem G. The normal and the pathological. New York: Zone Books, 1991: 196f.
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
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In the paper
“A physically dependent patient who has come to terms with his past life and his approaching death, for example, may well feel, and thus (because no one else is better placed to judge) be nearer to 'wholeness' than ever before.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Religious expectancy
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [26] Boyd KM. Health care ethics, health and disease. In: Gillon R, ed. Principles of health care ethics. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons 1994: 812.
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. It may state two separate claims as one.
- Not matched
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“This suggests one reason then, why definitions of disease can be so elusive.To call something a disease is a value judgment, relatively unproblematic in cases when it is widely shared, but more contentious when people disagree about it.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Philosophers' questions
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A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“In the case of disease, I have already indicated how metaphorising seems to have been at work, in the development of this more specific term as a particular instance of something causing dis-ease and making for lack of elbow room or freedom of movement.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Health as a metaphor
Strength:hedged· not yet calibratedCausal:conditional· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✗ Load-bearing: fails✗ Based: failsProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“If science were able to exclude the religious or transcendent dimension from reality (rather than just from the scientific picture of reality), it would be at the cost of excluding the first-person human dimension also.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Religious ideas
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“It is also that we normally think of health as having a positive as well as a negative dimension.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Health
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✗ Based: failsProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“For religion, the two remaining words I mentioned at the outset-wholeness and healing-are intimately related.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Wholeness, healing and death
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“A naïve, albeit widely-held view, is that religious ideas about the world have been disproved by science.What actually happened historically is more complex.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Religious ideas
Load-bearingStrength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes? Checkable: unclear✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“the more must the concept of a normal health, along with a normal diet and the normal course of an illness be abandoned by our physicians.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > No health as such
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [14] Nietzsche F. The gay science. [Translated by W Kaufmann.] New York: Vintage Books, 1974: book III, section 120.
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
Load-bearingStrength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. It may state two separate claims as one.
- Not matched
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Some diseases, clearly, are less respectable than others.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Munchausen's syndrome
Strength:boosted· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✗ Load-bearing: fails✗ Based: failsProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Most patients most of the time however, probably can be classified as having a disease, or feeling ill, or being recognised as sick.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > A medical definition
Strength:hedged· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✗ Based: failsProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“People labelled with Munchausen's syndrome then, may have succeeded in getting recognised as being sick, but not in the sense they intended.In Marinker's terms, their sickness has pretty low status.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Munchausen's syndrome
Strength:hedged· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
The paper states this without a source or data behind it here, so there is nothing to check it against. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“When we want to talk about some new experience or discovery for which our existing terminology has no adequate resources, a metaphor-a word or words from some other area of experience, but used in a new way-may help us to say what we mean.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Health
Strength:hedged· not yet calibratedCausal:conditional· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“These or other signs of hope, when attested, may be seen as traces of a transcendent or encompassing wholeness, in which human wholeness is grounded.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Wholeness, healing and death
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A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“expanding metaphors usually only modify rather than radically alter thought or action already also oriented by other powerful metaphors.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Spiritual health
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A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Our imitative or mimetic tendency then, may be one of the reasons why successful metaphors tend to proliferate so successfully.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Health as a metaphor
Strength:hedged· not yet calibratedCausal:direct· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one. The quote only partly states this claim.
- Rests on an assumption: Human beings are strongly imitative.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“But whether that person has a disease or is sick is something doctors and others may dispute.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Popular and literary definitions
Strength:hedged· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“But beyond that common core, judgments on whether a condition is a disease, or on what or who is healthy, begin to diverge, and our conceptions of disease and health begin to get fuzzy.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Kenneth M Boyd is Senior Lecturer in Medical Ethics, Edinburgh University Medical School and Research Director, Institute of Medical Ethics.
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.
- Rests on an assumption: There is a common core of ideas about what disease is or what health is.
In the paper
“Abnormal states of mind may reflect minority, immoral or illegal desires which are not sick desires.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Health
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [11] Downie RS, Fyfe C, Tannahill A. Health promotion: models and values. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. source
Strength:hedged· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
In the paper
“On the other hand, a psychopath, for example, may neither regard his state as unwanted, nor experience it as incapacitating.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Health
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [11] Downie RS, Fyfe C, Tannahill A. Health promotion: models and values. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. source
Strength:hedged· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes? Load-bearing: unclear✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Nor is the fact that a condition is unwanted enough to describe it as ill health: it may be the normal infirmity of old age for example; and again a condition's abnormality is not enough either-a disability or deformity may be abnormal, but the person who has it may not be unhealthy; and much the same may apply to someone who has had an injury.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Health
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [11] Downie RS, Fyfe C, Tannahill A. Health promotion: models and values. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. source
Load-bearingStrength:hedged· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Religious arguments underdetermine any conclusive answer to this question.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Religious expectancy
Load-bearingStrength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“What I take Hare to mean by this, is that when doctors apply a diagnostic label like Munchausen's syndrome, for example, they are committing themselves to the hope that someday they will be able to understand-in medical terms (”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Philosophers' questions
Strength:hedged· not yet calibratedCausal:direct· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Such questions admit only answers given, not by detached scientific or religious observers, but by or between conscious knowing subjects, the actors in the interplay.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Religious expectancy
Load-bearingStrength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✓ Load-bearing: passes✗ Based: failsProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper may give no reason why it holds.
In the paper
“To try to define health as simply the absence of disease or infirmity leads you into diYculties: ill health can't be defined simply in terms of disease, for example, because people can have a disease (especially one with minor symptoms) without feeling ill, and they can have unwanted symptoms (nausea, faintness, headaches and so on) when no disease or disorder seems to be present.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Health
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [11] Downie RS, Fyfe C, Tannahill A. Health promotion: models and values. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. source
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“there is no health as such, and all attempts to define anything in that way have been miserable failures.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > No health as such
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [14] Nietzsche F. The gay science. [Translated by W Kaufmann.] New York: Vintage Books, 1974: book III, section 120.
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
Load-bearingStrength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. It may state two separate claims as one.
- Not matched
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“while for religion the encompassing wholeness is not reducible to a psychological projection, it is discovered most commonly in the mode of expectancy, both in the midst of life and in the face of death.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Wholeness, healing and death
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✗ Based: failsProbably not a substantial claim. The paper may give no reason why it holds. It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“This disconcerting openness perhaps is what, finally, makes the meaning of health, healing and wholeness so elusive.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Religious expectancy
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“But wholeness is always imperfectly realised in the fragmentariness of human experience”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Wholeness, healing and death
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“as long as it does, the meaning of health, healing and wholeness seems likely to remain elusive.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Religious expectancy
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The problem about conceiving health in terms of fixed norms such as those of biochemistry, or the ideal of the athlete, is that it assumes that the objective observer's viewpoint is the true one, and discourages those who adopt it from seeing themselves as actors or agents, rather than patients who are acted upon.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Interplay
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. It may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“When these ideas were overtaken by new scientific explanations which seemed to fit the facts better, religion, being more conservative than science, was slow to give them up; and this helped to create the impression among many people that it was only a matter of time before science would explain everything.”
§ Disease, illness, sickness, health, healing and wholeness: exploring some elusive concepts > Religious ideas
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedCausal:direct· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes? Load-bearing: unclear✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
The paper relies on this without support.
The word health comes from an old Germanic root that means wholeness.
“The word derives from an old Germanic root meaning wholeness.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Human beings are strongly imitative.
“Humans are highly imitative animals.”
The paper relies on this without support.
Most people in our society make the same or similar value judgments about what disease, illness, sickness, and health words mean and what are examples of what they mean.
“most people, in our society at least, make the same or similar value judgments about what these words mean and what are examples of what they mean.”
The paper relies on this without support.
There is a common core of ideas about what disease is or what health is.
“There is, as it were, a common core of ideas about what disease is or what health is.”
The paper relies on this without support.
The Judaeo-Christian rejection of idolatry opened the way for modern scientific enquiry.
“this religious rejection of idolatry, it has often been argued, was what opened the way for modern scientific enquiry.”
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Disease states are fundamentally defined by their ability to cause illness, intended as both an objective and subjective human experience of ill health, secondary to ongoing alterations in the functioning of organs and tissues.”
From Definition and diagnostic criteria of clinical obesity (2025) · cites this paper as [20]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Citations
Cites
Chalmers, D. J. (1996) · Cited by 1,998
The Normal and the Pathological
Kaye, H. L., Canguilhem, G., Fawcett, C. R., & Cohen, R. S. (1990) · The Journal of Interdisciplinary History · doi:10.2307/204931 · Cited by 1,595
Nietzsche, F., Williams, B., Nauckhoff, J., & Caro, A. D. (1882) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 1,295
Asher, R. (1951) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(51)92313-6 · Cited by 1,045
Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View
Kuehn, M. (2012) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511809569.005 · Cited by 836
Health of UK servicemen who served in Persian Gulf War
Unwin, C., Blatchley, N., Coker, W. J., Ferry, S., Hotopf, M. H., Hull, L., Ismail, K., Palmer, I. P., David, A. S., & Wessely, S. C. (1999) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(98)11338-7 · Cited by 523
Principles of health care ethics
(1995) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.32-3345 · Cited by 438
Health Promotion: Models and Values
Downie, R., Tannahill, C., & Tannahill, A. (1990) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.28-1581 · Cited by 265
Schrödinger, E., & Thorndike, A. M. (1955) · Physics Today · doi:10.1063/1.3061916 · Cited by 115
Marinker, M. (1975) · Journal of Medical Ethics · doi:10.1136/jme.1.2.81 · Cited by 91
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 6
- Brown L, ed. The new shorter English dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.
- 1975, Journal of Medical Ethics, I, 81
- 1997, Times Literary Supplement, 16, 6
- 1986, Journal of Medical Ethics, 12, 172
- Schrödinger E. What is life? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1967: 118f.
- 1997, Times Literary Supplement, 16, 5
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 201–216 of 216
The importance of psychological health in musculoskeletal specialty care
Crijns, T. J. (2024) · University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) · doi:10.33612/diss.1069237949
Theoretical Perspectives on Frailty, Oral Health‐Related Quality of Life, and Well‐Being in Old Age
MacEntee, M. I., Niesten, D., Brondani, M., & Al‐Sahan, M. M. (2025) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9781394182176.ch3
Rodzinne historie choroby. (Auto)patografie jako zapisy (między)pokoleniowych traum
Świątkowska, M. (2025) · Wielogłos · doi:10.4467/2084395xwi.25.007.21426
Why hatred should be considered a contagious disease
Abuelaish, I. (2021) · doi:10.64628/aam.kapqfm7cs
Boissard, É. (2025) · Philosophical Psychology · doi:10.1080/09515089.2025.2562056
Yadav, N., & Panwar, N. (2025) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-38971-9_854-1
Braverman, A. (2025) · Health and Technology · doi:10.1007/s12553-025-01044-9
Enaux, J., Kaiser, A. V., Kobleder, A., & Knecht, C. (2026) · International Urogynecology Journal · doi:10.1007/s00192-026-06532-8
“Incorporating patient preferences into the development of health care interventions is essential, as it strengthens patient-centered care, enhances adherence, and supports shared decision-making [23, 24].”
‘Where Are the Children?’ : the Long Decline of Child Labour in England and Wales (1870-1914)
Robic, B. (2022) · theses.fr (ABES) · doi:10.70675/f871ce40z98b6z447dz85aaz5c91f26c6ffc
Split in two: Metaphors, puerperium and a picturebook-based narrative medicine proposal in Spain
Múñoz, E. G., Sarlo, G. D., & Vázquez, M. A. (2026) · Social Sciences & Humanities Open · doi:10.1016/j.ssaho.2026.102801
Retrospective diagnosis: process, outputs and relevance
Summerton, N. (2026) · JRSM Open · doi:10.1177/20542704261483853
On planetary health: medicine, ecology, and ethics
Fialova, L. (2026) · Medicine Health Care and Philosophy · doi:10.1007/s11019-026-10361-3
On the tetrad of human malady: disease, illness, sickness, and existential suffering
Hofmann, B. (2026) · Medicine Health Care and Philosophy · doi:10.1007/s11019-026-10397-5
Metadata
- Authors
- Boyd, K. M.
- Affiliations
- Institute of Medical Ethics (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Boyd, Kenneth M
- Venue
- Medical Humanities
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2000-06
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 9-17
- ISSN
- 1468-215X (ISSN-L)
- 1473-4265
- OpenAlex
- W2121821815
- Cited by
- 230
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 35 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 12.23
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Medical Humanities (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
- DigitalGeorgetown (Georgetown University Library) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Medicine, History, and Philosophy
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Empathy and Medical Education
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health, psychology, and well-being
- Keywords
- concept of disease, concept of health, illness, healing, wholeness, metaphor, value judgments, first-person experience, religion and medicine, science and medicine
- MeSH terms
- Death, Disease, Health, Humans, Munchausen Syndrome, Terminology as Topic, Patients, Philosophy, Psychology, Religion, Science, Social Values, Metaphor
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-10-04, under version 3 of the claim definition (model deepseek-v4.1-flash, prompt extract-v3).
A second model labelled each claim on 2026-10-04 (model jev-1.13-20260917, definition revision gold-guideline-v0.2).
Cited sources are checked with a language model’s help (gpt-6-sol).
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
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