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Chapter 1 - Can Societies Be Ill?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 October 2022

Frederick Neuhouser
Affiliation:
Barnard College, Columbia University
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Summary

Chapter 1 begins to define the concept of social pathology and to assess its usefulness for social philosophy. It distinguishes five conceptions of social illness different from the one employed in this book, which places dysfunction, rather than suffering, at the core of social illness. It argues, further, that while social pathologies must be bad in some way for social members, those individuals are not typically ill themselves. Although there are good reasons for approaching the concept of social pathology with caution – societies differ in important ways from biological organisms, for example – judicious use of the concept can bring to light critique-worthy social phenomena to which theories focused exclusively on justice are blind. The method espoused for diagnosing social illnesses is a form of ethically informed immanent critique that bears some similarities to medical diagnosis but refrains from ascribing moral blame to the individual participants in unhealthy social practices.

Type
Chapter
Information
Diagnosing Social Pathology
Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, and Durkheim
, pp. 1 - 28
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Can Societies Be Ill?
  • Frederick Neuhouser, Barnard College, Columbia University
  • Book: Diagnosing Social Pathology
  • Online publication: 07 October 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009235020.002
Available formats
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  • Can Societies Be Ill?
  • Frederick Neuhouser, Barnard College, Columbia University
  • Book: Diagnosing Social Pathology
  • Online publication: 07 October 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009235020.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Can Societies Be Ill?
  • Frederick Neuhouser, Barnard College, Columbia University
  • Book: Diagnosing Social Pathology
  • Online publication: 07 October 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009235020.002
Available formats
×