ICBO_2018_13: The Identity and Mereology of Pathological Dispositions

<p>Diseases, risks of pathological processes and predispositions have been formalized as dispositions. The relations between those pathological dispositions, however, remain unclear. We apply here a recently developed theory of mereology and identity among dispositions to analyze such relations. In particular, we show how a framework for the identity of disposition leads to a disease being not only a disposition to a disease course, but also to each pathological process; how it avoids risk multiplicativism; and how a predisposition can be identified with a risk whose estimated probability is higher than for the risk of a reference class. We discuss how this makes predisposition always relative to a reference class, to a time-frame and to sources of risk estimates; and we clarify the nature of risk factors.</p>