that societies have effective schools for the cultivation of human intelli-
gence and its applications, especially for the young, but ideally for lifelong
learning.
Sociocultural and Aesthetic Determinants
Relationality
Relationality signifies relationships of various kinds: interpersonal,
between person and society, among social groups and nations, and
between persons and other kinds of beings (living and non-living) who
constitute the world. Psychology and sociology investigate relations
among persons and groups, social and political theorists discuss relational-
ity in the sociopolitical domain, and ethicists in terms of morality. But rela-
tionality can be understood in some other and interestingly subtle ways.
Self-sufficiency is a determinant of health, and in evaluating a
person’s health, an important question is: How much does a given condi-
tion interfere with the person’s ability to act independently to accomplish
his or her purposes? A limited capacity to act can indicate a compromised
state of health. On the other hand, health as a positive state is relative to
the power to act in one’s own behalf to meet one’s needs and desires.
Moreover, because our humanity entails the duties and benefits of com-
munity life, vitality can be employed in one’s work and social service to
contribute to the well-being of others. Self-sufficiency is important to
health, but its necessary condition is relationality, a concept that illumi-
nates meanings of health as regards person, species, environment, and
community.
The notion of ‘social determinants of health’ suggests two main
themes; the first is social factors as they bear on medical health. It was in
this connection that Descartes envisaged a social revolution based on
medicine, consonant with Rudolph Virchow’s concept of the role of
health in democratic government:
The democratic state desires that all its citizens enjoy a state of well-
being, for it recognizes that they all have equal rights.... However, the
conditions of well-being are health and education, so it is the task of the
state to provide on the broadest possible basis the means for maintain-
ing and promoting health and education through public action.^67The second theme emergent in the idea of social determinants of health is
the one emphasized here: perspectives on what it means to be healthy in
context of human social and cultural life—that is, creation of meanings
meanings of health in ̄ayurveda 69