ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 argues for how and why population health science should carry out its agenda to research and respond to the ‘upstream’ social causes of health. I argue that one particularly philosophically and practically important contribution to this effort is Link and Phelan’s “Fundamental Cause Theory.” I show how fundamental causes are special because they manifest a unique sort of stability. I proceed to contrast population health science’s laudable attention to social determinants of health and upstream causes of health with Alex Broadbent’s less prominent coverage of these topics in his influential text Philosophy of Epidemiology. I use Geoffrey Rose’s distinction between causes of disease incidence vs. causes of disease prevalence to show that Broadbent’s philosophy prioritizes the former types of cause while population health science prioritizes the latter types of cause. I conclude by advocating for orienting philosophy of public/population health to the topic of salutogenesis rather than pathogenesis; the philosophical study of disease can easily overtake attention to the philosophical study of health. I illustrate these recommended changes in how to approach health causation by examining Brazil’s evolving HIV/AIDS policies.
