Integrative Health and Human Well-Being

Philosophers have long argued over the relationship between health and human well-being. While some claim that health - understood as the proper functioning of one's body - is inessential to well-being, our project considers the relationship between well-being and "integrative health," which compasses a spectrum of social factors, including values and meaningfulness. With an empirical case study on obesity in America, we will show that there is a much closer conceptual relation between philosophical theories of well-being and health than is ordinarily recognized, and that an integrative-health approach offers vital insights for re-envisioning interventions that improve health and human well-being, simultaneously.