The Axiology of Health: Optimization vs. the Ethics of Sufficiency

The text analyzes the philosophical and ethical aspects of defining health, contrasting the model of statistical optimization with the concept of adaptive capacities. The author refers to Canguilhem's normativity and the capability approach of Sen and Nussbaum, arguing that health should not be understood as a state of complete well-being (according to the WHO), but as the organism's flexibility in dealing with imperfections. The article emphasizes the tension between individual autonomy and systemic paternalism, as well as the role of social justice in access to health resources. Health is presented not as an end in itself, but as a key resource for freedom and opportunity that protects a person's real living space from biological and systemic constraints.