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ways a promising way to go. It is also an original way to approach questions of medicalethics, which are seldom related in any substantive way to a theory of health.Central to Gadamer’s analysis of the concept of health is the thought that health is notsimply synonymous with the absence of any disease (i.e., of pathological states or processesaffecting the biological organism). Health has a phenomenological structure initself, as a certain way of being-in-the-world:So what genuine possibilities stand before us when we are considering the question ofhealth? Without doubt it is part of our nature as living beings that our conscious selfawarenessremains largely in the background so that our enjoyment of good health isconstantly concealed from us. Yet despite its hidden character health none the lessmanifests itself in a general feeling of well-being. It shows itself above all where sucha feeling of well-being means we are open to new things, ready to embark on newenterprises and, forgetful of ourselves, scarcely notice the demands and strains whichare put on us. This is what health is. ... We need only reflect that it is quite meaningfulto ask someone ‘Do you feel ill?’ but that it would border on the absurd to asksomeone ‘Do you feel healthy?’ Health is not a condition that one introspectively feelsin oneself. Rather, it is a condition of being involved, of being in the world, of beingtogether with one’s fellow human beings, of active and rewarding engagement in one’severyday tasks. 32In many ways the phenomenon of illness seems to be far more concrete and easy toget hold of than the phenomenon of health. When we are ill, life is often dominated byfeelings of meaninglessness, helplessness, pain, nausea, fear, dizziness, or disability.Health, in contrast, effaces itself in an enigmatic way (the dual meaning of the GermanVerborgenheit). It seems to be the absence of every feeling of being ill, the state or processwhich we are in when everything is running smoothly, flowing in its usual way andwithout hindrance.The conceptual background for Gadamer’s analysis of health is here undoubtedlyHeidegger’s phenomenology of everyday human existence found in Division 1 of Sein undZeit, although Heidegger himself never addresses health and sickness there. Anotherimportant source of inspiration for Gadamer’s analysis is ancient health theory. Theoriesof health in antiquity were built around various conceptions of balance and harmony, themost famous and influential of which was the Hippocratic doctrine of balance between thefour bodily fluids -- blood, phlegm, yellow and black bile. 33 In classical Greece, thisbalance between fluids or other elements (such as air, water, fire and earth) in the humanbody was thought to mirror the order of the entire world. Man was seen as a microcosmos,built according to the same principles as the order of all things -- as the order ofthe kosmos.32Gadamer, The Enigma of Health, 112-113. “Welche Möglichkeiten haben wir dann eigentlich,wenn es sich um Gesundheit handelt? Es liegt ganz unzweifelhaft in der Lebendigkeit unserer Natur, dassdie Bewusstheit sich von sich selbst zurückhält, so dass Gesundheit sich verbirgt. Trotz aller Verborgenheitkommt sie aber in einer Art Wohlgefühl zutage, und mehr noch darin, dass wir vor lauter Wohlgefühlunternehmungsfreudig, erkenntnisoffen und selbstvergessen sind und selbst Strapazen und Anstrengungenkaum spüren – das ist Gesundheit. […] Mann mache es sich nur bewusst, dass es zwar sinnvoll ist zufragen: “Fühlen Sie sich krank?” Aber es wäre fast lächerlich, wenn einer einen fragte: “Fühlen Sie sichgesund?” Gesundheit ist eben überhaupt nicht ein Sich-Fühlen, sondern ist Da-Sein, In-der-Welt-Sein, Mitden-Menschen-Sein,von den eigenen Aufgaben des Lebens tätig oder freudig erfüllt sein.” Gadamer, Überdie Verborgenheit der Gesundheit, 143-144.33Oswei Temkin, The Double Face of Janus (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1977).181