Patologia tra storia, genomica e scienza della riabilitazione

(Pathology between History, Genomics, and Rehabilitation Science)

Abstract

The great season of pathology started in the nineteenth century with the Viennese school of Rokitansky and Virchow’s cellular pathology. Nevertheless, autopsies were performed even earlier and diseases were investigated especially as consequences of phlogistic phenomena or alterations of the tissues. If compared with the past, things have changed a great deal in the second half of the twentieth century. The change of perspective has occurred (also) due to the provocation of the moral philosopher R.M. Hare regarding the question of the descriptive or normative nature of the concept of health, which has had considerable effects on the relation between moral philosophy and pathology. Further shifts in perspective have also occurred as a result of recent advances in medicine, especially in genomics and regenerative rehabilitation. The boundaries between health and sickness become thus increasingly elusive.