Seventeenth-century origins of public health ideology

Abstract

Public health shows the tendency to extend beyond the limitations of scientific knowledge and is increasingly becoming an ideology. The basis of this ideology was formed in the 17th century by such precursors as René Descartes, John Amos Comenius, John Locke and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Descartes’ vision of the world and his innovative methodology enabled the development of medicine as a science; he also set the direction into which the contemporary ideology of public health would develop. Comenius is a precursor of the concept of general prohealth  education, which is an important element of the ideology of public health. Locke introduced the idea of a civil society in which an individual is conscious of his/her own pro-health duties as well as his/her duties regarding the community s/he lives in. Therefore he can be considered as a precursor of the modern idea of the medicalization of society. Leibniz sketched a project of a holistic health care system to be implemented by the state to take care of both the individual and the community s/he lives in. The system was to include therapeutic care, pro-health education and the organization of health prevention treatment. Leibniz can thus be regarded as a precursor of creating medicalized society, i.e. one in which activities which are considered to have pro-health functions are imposed on individuals by persuasive and legal measures.

Public health shows the tendency to extend beyond the limitations of scientific knowledge and is increasingly becoming an ideology. The basis of this ideology was formed in the 17th century by such precursors as René Descartes, John Amos Comenius, John Locke and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Descartes’ vision of the world and his innovative methodology enabled the development of medicine as a science; he also set the direction into which the contemporary ideology of public health would develop. Comenius is a precursor of the concept of general prohealth  education, which is an important element of the ideology of public health. Locke introduced the idea of a civil society in which an individual is conscious of his/her own pro-health duties as well as his/her duties regarding the community s/he lives in. Therefore he can be considered as a precursor of the modern idea of the medicalization of society. Leibniz sketched a project of a holistic health care system to be implemented by the state to take care of both the individual and the community s/he lives in. The system was to include therapeutic care, pro-health education and the organization of health prevention treatment. Leibniz can thus be regarded as a precursor of creating medicalized society, i.e. one in which activities which are considered to have pro-health functions are imposed on individuals by persuasive and legal measures.