Personal identity and mental health
pp. 203-211
in: , Personhood and health care, Berlin, Springer, 2001Abstract
"Health" and "illness," "being well" and "being ill" are clearly evaluative expressions in more than one way. It is desirable, other things being equal, to be well and undesirable (with the same proviso) to be ill; but it is desirable/undesirable for a different reason from being, say, rich or poor, lucky or unlucky. Being rich is desirable for those who prefer to be rich. Being ill may be thought to be undesirable even for someone who may prefer to be so — such a preference may be regarded as itself undesirable. In this respect, health and illness are more like moral virtue and vice than they are like wealth and poverty. However, they are not exactly like virtue and vice. We do not praise the person who is healthy or condemn the person who is ill because we regard a person's state of health as ultimately beyond that person's conscious control. We can of course attempt to keep ourselves healthy by taking exercise, eating a proper diet, avoiding excess, and so on; in the end, all these efforts may be frustrated by infections, accidental injuries, the working of our genes, or the inevitable consequences of aging.