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Paul Grobstein's picture

Fat or fit? Medicine versus ?

Glad to have the issue raised of whether "health" has a "solid empirical or teleologic base", ie a form of definition independent of the observer and associated cultural and individual idiosyncracies, or is instead context-dependent. Yes, we normally don't notice the likelihood of "ambiguity" along these lines when we call something "healthy" or "unhealthy" (the "For purposes of the present argument ..." quote is from here). For more exploring this ambiguity see Culture as Disability, A Critical Analysis of the Scientific Model of Health, Models of Mental Health, and The More I Learn, the More I Realize How I Think and Learn is Different. What makes the fat vs fit issue particularly interesting in this regard is the increasing evidence that substantial variation in body size is probably "normal" rather than being pathological (as per the Angier articles mentioned above).

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