<p>In the 1850s, &quot;Drapetomania&quot; was the medical term for a disease found among black slaves in the United States. The main symptom was a strange desire to run away from their masters. In earlier centuries gout was understood as a metabolic disease of the affluent, so much so that it became a badge of uppercrust honor -- and a medical excuse to avoid hard work. Today, is there such a thing as mental illness, or is mental illness just a myth? Is Alzheimer's really a disease? What is menopause -- a biological or a social construction?</p><p>Historically one can see that health, disease, and illness are concepts that have been ever fluid. Modern science, sociology, philosophy, even society -- among other factors -- constantly have these issues under microscopes, learning more, defining and redefining ever more exactly. Yet often that scrutiny, instead of leading toward hard answers, only leads to more questions.<i>Health, Disease, and Illness</i> brings together a sterling list of classic and contemporary thinkers to examine the history, state, and future of ever-changing &quot;concepts&quot; in medicine.</p><p>Divided into four parts -- Historical Discussions; Characterizing Health, Disease, and Illness; Clinical Applications of Health and Disease; and Normalcy, Genetic Disease, and Enhancement: The Future of the Concepts of Health and Disease -- the reader can see the evolutionary arc of medical concepts from the Greek physician Galen of Pergamum (ca. 150 ce) who proposed that &quot;the best doctor is also a philosopher,&quot; to contemporary discussions of the genome and morality. The editors have recognized a crucial need for a deeper integration of medicine and philosophy with each other, particularly in an age of dynamically changing medical science -- and what it means, medically, philosophically, to be human.</p>