title: [Dialectic of the disease concept].
abstract: Using the Marxist concept of matter as the point of departure, a short description is given of life as a principle moving form of matter. Life is the structured, biological, moving form of matter which has developed from the single cell, over different stages of organization to the human being. Disease too, represents a fundamental manifestation of life and has also been subject to the process of evolution and arises as a reaction to the confrontation with the environment. Its characteristics take on a different quality depending on the level of organization of the living organism. For this reason there can be no universally inclusive definition of disease which applies to all forms of life. In particular concepts of human disease must take into account the social form of matter in movement. In the same way the biological characterization of human disease must consider the micro-molecular point of view. Correspondingly malignant neoplasms for example are human diseases in the usual clinical sense but biologically are distinct in that, like aging they are directly bond to the existence of DNA. Both from the perspective of theoretical cognition and from the practical standpoint, such distinctions are essential to the way in which the concept of disease is regarded, if errors in the assessment of disease are to be avoided.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004194:Disease / Q000209:etiology*; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology; D012306:Risk
vernacular_title: Zur Dialektik des Krankheitsbegriffs.