---
abstract: 'By contrasting Hippocratic and nineteenth century theories of disease, this paper describes important conceptual changes that have taken place in the history of medicine. Disease concepts are presented as causal networks that represent the relations among the symptoms, causes, and treatment of a disease. The transition to the germ theory of disease produced dramatic conceptual changes as the result of a radically new view of disease causation. An analogy between disease and fermentation was important for two of the main developers of the germ theory of disease, Pasteur and Lister. Attention to the development of germ concepts shows the need for a referential account of conceptual change to complement a representational account.'
altloc:
  - http://cogsci.uwaterloo.ca/Articles/Pages/Concept.html
chapter: ~
commentary: ~
commref: ~
confdates: ~
conference: ~
confloc: ~
contact_email: ~
creators_id: []
creators_name:
  - family: Thagard
    given: P.
    honourific: ''
    lineage: ''
date: 1996
date_type: published
datestamp: 1998-06-06
department: ~
dir: disk0/00/00/06/72
edit_lock_since: ~
edit_lock_until: ~
edit_lock_user: ~
editors_id: []
editors_name: []
eprint_status: archive
eprintid: 672
fileinfo: /style/images/fileicons/text_html.png;/672/1/Concept.html
full_text_status: public
importid: ~
institution: ~
isbn: ~
ispublished: pub
issn: ~
item_issues_comment: []
item_issues_count: 0
item_issues_description: []
item_issues_id: []
item_issues_reported_by: []
item_issues_resolved_by: []
item_issues_status: []
item_issues_timestamp: []
item_issues_type: []
keywords: ~
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:54:11
latitude: ~
longitude: ~
metadata_visibility: show
note: ~
number: ~
pagerange: 445-478
pubdom: FALSE
publication: Communication and Cognition
publisher: ~
refereed: TRUE
referencetext: ~
relation_type: []
relation_uri: []
reportno: ~
rev_number: 8
series: ~
source: ~
status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:32:43
subjects:
  - cog-psy
  - comp-sci-art-intel
  - phil-sci
succeeds: ~
suggestions: ~
sword_depositor: ~
sword_slug: ~
thesistype: ~
title: 'The Concept of Disease: Structure and Change'
type: journalp
userid: 149
volume: 29
<script src="//archive-bar.soton.ac.uk/archive-bar.js"></script>