Health as a robustly demanding good

I describe a novel account of health called the Robust Life View (RLV). On the RLV, health is a measure of an organism’s ability to stay alive across realistic changes in circumstances. Health is what Phillip Pettit calls ‘a robustly demanding good’. Certain conditions (for example injuries, infections, hereditary diseases) reduce our capacity to survive in realistic circumstances and reduce our health. This account is distinctive for grounding health in facts about an organism’s ability to stay alive rather than their ability to function, achieve goals, or be happy. I argue this account provides a useful and novel way of understanding health and provides new insights into theoretical and practical problems.