Z. M. Davis writes: … objective illness is just as problematic as objective morality
I would argue that to answer Robin’s challenge is not necessarily to assert that there is such a thing as objective illness.
Accounts have been given of the pressure producing the ability to see beauty (google sexual selection or see e.g. this). This does not require that there is some eternal beauty written in the fabric of the universe—it may be, for example, that each species has evolved its own standard of beauty, and that selection is operating on both sides, i.e., selecting against individuals who are insufficiently beautiful and also selecting against admirers who differ too far from the norm.
However, this evolutionary concept of “illness” cannot be the ordinary meaning of the word, because no one actually cares about fitness.
My argument is: people can distinguish illness because it enhances their fitness to do so. Compare this to the following argument: people can distinguish the opposite sex because it enhances their fitness to do so. Now, okay, suppose that people don’t care about fitness, as you say. Nevertheless, unbeknownst to them, telling women apart from men enhances their fitness. Similarly for illness.
Take homosexuality. It’s often considered a mental disorder, but if someone is gay and happy being so, I would challenge (as evil, even) any attempt to define them as “ill” in anything more than the irrelevant evolutionary sense.
Homosexuality reduces fitness (so you seem to to agree), but this does not make it an illness. Not everything that reduces fitness is an illness. Rather, illness tends to reduce fitness. Let me put it this way. Blindness tends to reduce fitness. But not everything that reduces fitness is blindness. Similarly, illness tends to reduce fitness. But that doesn’t mean that everything that reduces fitness is illness.
… that which the patient desires in herself is health, and that which the patient does not desire in herself is sickness.
We can similarly say, that which a person desires in a mate is beauty. However, I think the most that can be said for this is that it is one concept of beauty. It is not the only concept. The idea that there is a shared standard of beauty is, despite much thought and argument to the contrary, still with us, and not illegitimate.
Z. M. Davis writes: … objective illness is just as problematic as objective morality
I would argue that to answer Robin’s challenge is not necessarily to assert that there is such a thing as objective illness.
Accounts have been given of the pressure producing the ability to see beauty (google sexual selection or see e.g. this). This does not require that there is some eternal beauty written in the fabric of the universe—it may be, for example, that each species has evolved its own standard of beauty, and that selection is operating on both sides, i.e., selecting against individuals who are insufficiently beautiful and also selecting against admirers who differ too far from the norm.
However, this evolutionary concept of “illness” cannot be the ordinary meaning of the word, because no one actually cares about fitness.
My argument is: people can distinguish illness because it enhances their fitness to do so. Compare this to the following argument: people can distinguish the opposite sex because it enhances their fitness to do so. Now, okay, suppose that people don’t care about fitness, as you say. Nevertheless, unbeknownst to them, telling women apart from men enhances their fitness. Similarly for illness.
Take homosexuality. It’s often considered a mental disorder, but if someone is gay and happy being so, I would challenge (as evil, even) any attempt to define them as “ill” in anything more than the irrelevant evolutionary sense.
Homosexuality reduces fitness (so you seem to to agree), but this does not make it an illness. Not everything that reduces fitness is an illness. Rather, illness tends to reduce fitness. Let me put it this way. Blindness tends to reduce fitness. But not everything that reduces fitness is blindness. Similarly, illness tends to reduce fitness. But that doesn’t mean that everything that reduces fitness is illness.
… that which the patient desires in herself is health, and that which the patient does not desire in herself is sickness.
We can similarly say, that which a person desires in a mate is beauty. However, I think the most that can be said for this is that it is one concept of beauty. It is not the only concept. The idea that there is a shared standard of beauty is, despite much thought and argument to the contrary, still with us, and not illegitimate.