The Epistemic Determinants of Health

Health and illness are significantly determined by knowledge and its communication. At first glance, this might seem obvious; people use healthcare systems when they suspect that something might be wrong, a suspicion connected both with lived knowledge about and from their minds, bodies, and environments, and broader knowledge about how ill and healthy minds and bodies are supposed to feel and function. Likewise, the possibility for effective treatment depends – among other things – on what knowledge healthcare professionals have, whether that knowledge comes from the ill person directly, from their training or wider reading, or from the resources available to them in their profession (i.e., the sum of accessible knowledge about a particular condition or disease). The problem is that these considerations are rarely straightforward, vulnerable to considerable blocks, barriers, and failures, and structured by systemic injustices in the creation, communication, and reception of knowledge.