ABSTRACT
That we need science to understand matters of disease, exercise, fitness, health, illness and so on is undisputed. Whether any empirical or scientific enterprise could properly proceed without philosophical reflection is not universally agreed. A simple thought, however, should arrest any potential dispute. How, we might well ask, could scientists investigate exercise, measure fitness, or evaluate health and illness without first clarifying the very concepts that they sought to research? Are exercise benefits objective or subjective? What type of fitness do we wish to measure? Shall we use broad or narrow conceptions of health? What are the logical relations between disease and illness? All these simple questions are essential to scientists and other professionals in the sphere of exercise, health and sport. And they are, of course, all philosophical ones pertaining to the concepts we employ, whether as students, or lecturers, or researchers, in our professional lives.
