Common suggests something on the one hand basic, ordinary, elemental, and pretty widely distributed, even ubiquitous. At the same time, however, it refers to a shared property, something held in common, collectively perhaps, but something that each of us has individually as well. Beyond this, common signifies connection and, thus, for me, implies both responsibility and reciprocity. This examination, ironically, will require uncommon knowledge and specialized approaches. It will also need to be tested against common knowledge and common experience.
Health sounds simple enough, but what a difficult idea it really is.
Just trying to sort out its many meanings, let alone their implications, will provide us with material for many undergraduate and graduate courses, courses that could tell us as much about ourselves as a nation and a culture as they would about health. These considerations are needed because, by the time Becker was putting together common and health, it is fairly safe to say that for many, health had become something mostly like a possession or a form of property and, thus, in our modern context, like other property, an aspect of individual identity. We tended to see health one body at a time. It's also not just an accident that things worked out this way. These have changed the ways our culture conceives of the body and of human life.