ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the statistical concept of health that involves a kind of naturalistic explanation of health, Christopher Boorse rejects it. Boorse argues that the concept of health is best understood from a naturalistic perspective. The acclimation-adaptation concept of health includes a positive and a negative version. The chapter discusses the different senses of the adaptation concept of health, Boorse's reply to each sense, and a rejoinder to each of Boorse's replies. Boorse describes the statistical concept of health as follows: In clinical language, diseases or pathological conditions are also called abnormal, and healthy conditions normal. George Engel's homeostatic concept of health is the idea that crucial physiological, psychological, and social processes must be kept in an equilibrium or "steady state" in order that basic physiological and psychological needs can be met. Boorse discusses that the statistical concept of health offers little in terms of a defensible naturalistic concept of health.
