de Canson, Chloé (2026) Diseases as Homeostatic Property Clusters. Philosophy of Medicine, 7 (1). pp. 1-14. ISSN 2692-3963
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Abstract
Several philosophers have recently drawn on property cluster accounts of natural kinds to argue that individual diseases form natural kinds. According to this view, diseases have a super-explanatory property (their pathophysiology), by virtue of which their other properties (their symptomatology, biological signature, response to treatments, and prognosis) tend to co-occur. I argue that we can say more: Disease pathophysiologies are mechanisms, so that the property clusters diseases form are homeostatic. I examine the two objections that natural kind theorists have raised against the homeostatic property cluster account, and I argue that they should not deter us from applying it to disease.
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| Item Type: | Published Article or Volume | ||||||
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| Keywords: | Nature of disease, Natural kinds, Disease kinds, Homeostatic property clusters, Pathophysiology, Pathomechanism, Mechanisms | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Medicine > Health and Disease Specific Sciences > Medicine |
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| Depositing User: | Professor Alex Broadbent | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 05 May 2026 13:40 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 05 May 2026 13:40 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 29463 | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Philosophy of Medicine | ||||||
| Publisher: | University Library System, University of Pittsburgh | ||||||
| Official URL: | https://philmed.pitt.edu/philmed/article/view/259 | ||||||
| DOI or Unique Handle: | 10.5195/pom.2026.259 | ||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Medicine > Health and Disease Specific Sciences > Medicine |
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| Date: | 28 April 2026 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 1-14 | ||||||
| Volume: | 7 | ||||||
| Number: | 1 | ||||||
| ISSN: | 2692-3963 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/29463 |
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