Abstract
The concept of quality of life plays a key role in the modern medicine since it serves as a goal and gauge of treatment. The main trouble with it rests in that it belongs to the realm of “ought” wherefore empirical data studying “is” are of no help. There is thus a necessity to work with arguments borrowed from philosophy while philosophy has been dealing with this issue from its very beginning. This topic had, in ancient Greece, the name “eudaimonia,” and modern thinking rendered it usually as happiness or well-being. These words do not mirror the entire content, and the most appropriate equivalent of it would be the meaning of life worth pursuing by every human being. Yet the meaning of life is veiled by sundry paradoxes, and these paradoxes defy simple definition wherefore its application is rather tough. Moreover, the concept of quality of life must include also other factors like social, financial, and natural environment as well as endowment determined by birth. In any way, this background must be taken into account whenever the concept of quality of life is focused on.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aristotle. (2009). The nicomachean ethics (trans: Ross, D.). Oxford: Oxford University (NE).
Aristotle. (2011). The eudemian ethics (trans: Ross, D.). Oxford: Oxford University (EE).
Callahan, D., & Hanson, M. J. (Eds.). (1999). The goals of medicine. Washington, DC: Georgetown University.
Fuster, J. M. (2008). The prefrontal cortex. London: Elsevier.
Galbraith, J. K. (1958). The affluent society. Cambridge: Houghton Mifflin.
Grondin, J. (1997). Introduction to philosophical hermeneutics (trans: Weinsheimer, J.). New Haven/London: Yale University.
Hume, D. (1978). A treatise of human nature. Oxford: Clarendon.
Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, self and society. Chicago: University of Chicago.
Nussbaum, M. C. (1989). The fragility of goodness. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
Rocco, L., & Suhrcke, M. (2012). Is social capital good for health? A European perspective. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe.
Russell, D. C. (2012). Happiness for humans. Oxford: Oxford University.
Schiefsky, M. J. (2005). Hippocrates: On ancient medicine. Leiden/Boston: Brill.
Taylor, C. (1997). The politics of recognition. In A. Heble, D. P. Pennee, & J. R. T. Struthers (Eds.), New contexts of Canadian criticism (pp. 25–73). Peterborough: Broadview.
Tolstoy, L. N. (1983). Confession (trans: Patterson, D.). New York/London: W. W. Norton.
Wachinger, B. (2001). Erzählen für die Gesundheit: Diätetik und Literatur im Mittelalter. Heidelberg: Winter.
Further Readings
Lejeune, F. (1942). Die mittelalterlichen Regimina sanitatis. In E. Risak (Ed.), Das Altern und seines Beschwerden (pp. 168–182). Wien: Springer.
Nordenfeld, L. (1993). Quality of life, health and happiness. Aldershot: Avebury.
Nussbaum, M. C., & Sen, A. (Eds.). (1993). The quality of life. Oxford: Clarendon.
Rapley, M. (2003). Quality of life research: A critical introduction. London: Sage.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this entry
Cite this entry
Payne, J. (2015). Quality of Life. In: ten Have, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05544-2_361-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05544-2_361-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-05544-2
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities