Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Why Health? offers a new practical philosophy of health for our time—one that reexamines not how to achieve health, but why we pursue it. Drawing on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and decades of public health research, the book argues that modern health discourse has lost sight of its foundational question: Is health an end in itself or a means to a fuller life? The book contends that health should serve human flourishing, not dominate it, and that our current approach too often mistakes safety and control for meaning and purpose. Through an inquiry spanning ethics, policy, and the social sciences, Why Health? explores the values that shape population health—dignity, proportionality, equity, and compassion—and the limits of science and institutions in realizing them. It calls for a consequentialist but humble public health: one that combines empiricism with moral clarity and accepts complexity rather than seeking easy certainties. At its core, the book is an invitation to think differently about what health is for. It challenges readers to recognize that the pursuit of health, if disconnected from the pursuit of a good life, risks becoming self-defeating. In doing so, Why Health? reclaims the moral and intellectual purpose of public health: to build a world that safeguards health for all while enabling the freedom, creativity, and dignity that make life worth living.</jats:p>