Abstract

Health, wellbeing and human flourishing are related in various ways to the emplaced dimension of human existence. In this paper, we would like to highlight how a network of thinkers who are part of twentieth-century continental philosophy gave specific content to this general and broad idea of a relationship between human health, wellbeing and human flourishing and environment, namely, K. Goldstein, G. Canguilhem and M. Merleau-Ponty. K. Goldstein aimed to determine an appropriate medical approach to brain injuries. Within this clinical context, he conceived of healthy and pathological states as essentially related to the patient’s environment understood as “others and the world”. G. Canguilhem focused on the human capacity to tailor their living environment and conceived of it as fundamental to their health. G. Canguilhem’s contribution to the conception of the relationship between health and environment may indeed be considered as crucial. In its turn, M. Merleau-Ponty’s conception of the “lived space” offers key tools for considering this issue, especially when one wants to take into account the embodied dimension of human life and the meanings of the “lived world”. Taking K. Goldstein’s inquiry as a starting point, one may consider the richness of the continental dialogue between him and his French readers, G. Canguilhem and M. Merleau-Ponty in conceiving the relationship between health, wellbeing and human flourishing: their three conceptions are original in regard to each other. However, they are deeply connected and propose complementary perspectives for thinking about this relationship.