‘Mad’ Disease, Martian Diseases, and Modernism

Debates about the Disease Concept have largely reached a point of stalemate between two dominant positions, the Biostatistical (BST) and Harmful Dysfunction (HDT) theories. I provide a new characterisation of those positions, and the stalemate between them, focussing on the respective theories of biological function that they employ. In that light, I elaborate some motivations for adopting Social Constructivism as an alternative, and go on to propose a “rebranding” of Social Constructivism as a form of modernism, with the same basic concerns as the literary and artistic movement of that name. I describe two distinct conceptual “stages” of the debate. The first is the familiar trade in problem-cases and counter-examples, resulting in the familiar stasis of mature philosophical debates. But two later, well-known arguments in the debate represent – I argue – a conceptually new stage, in which it becomes doubtful that either BST or HDT can even in principle characterise the disease concept accurately. I therefore propose moving to a third stage, in which the main alternative theory of disease - social constructivism – emerges as a species of modernism, concerned with showing the contingency of the modes of existence, cognition, and physical functioning privileged and favoured in a given society.<p></p>