The Faces of Intellectual Disability: Philosophical Reflections

The Faces of Intellectual Disability: Philosophical Reflections

by Licia Carlson
The Faces of Intellectual Disability: Philosophical Reflections

The Faces of Intellectual Disability: Philosophical Reflections

by Licia Carlson

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Overview

In a challenge to current thinking about cognitive impairment, this book explores what it means to treat people with intellectual disabilities in an ethical manner. Reassessing philosophical views of intellectual disability, Licia Carlson shows how we can affirm the dignity and worth of intellectually disabled people first by ending comparisons to nonhuman animals and then by confronting our fears and discomforts. Carlson presents the complex history of ideas about cognitive disability, the treatment of intellectually disabled people, and social and cultural reactions to them. Sensitive and clearly argued, this book offers new insights on recent trends in disability studies and philosophy.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780253221575
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Publication date: 12/22/2009
Pages: 286
Sales rank: 901,683
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Licia Carlson has written numerous articles on philosophy and disability and is the co-editor of Cognitive Disability and Its Challenge to Moral Philosophy. She is an assistant professor of philosophy at Providence College.

Table of Contents

A Note on Terminology
Introduction: The Philosopher's Nightmare
Part 1. The Institutional World of Intellectual Disability
1. Twin Brothers: The "Idiot" and the Institution
2. Gendered Objects, Gendered Subjects
3. Analytic Interlude
Part 2. The Philosophical World of Intellectual Disability
4. The Face of Authority
5. The Face of the Beast
6. The Face of Suffering
Conclusion: The Face of the Mirror
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

"Carlson (philosophy, Providence College) provides a valuable, in-depth exploration of the philosophical and moral underpinnings of understanding of persons with intellectual disabilities. She surveys historical perspectives over time, looking at how people with intellectual disabilities became increasingly marginalized in society and at how perception of this segment of society as 'other' resulted in the creation of the asylum and later the institution for the 'feeble-minded.' Within the confines of these institutions, residents were often treated as 'pets,' a conceit that is evident in current ethics discourse and debates surrounding animal rights and speciesism. Using the deconstructionist analysis pioneered by Michel Foucault, Carlson provides effective countervailing arguments against such ethicists as Peter Singer, who assume an equivalence between severely cognitively impaired infants and nonhuman animals, using potentialities as the criterion. Carlson argues that the complexities of human nature should be acknowledged and accepted within the social community. The book is a bit pedantic, but Carlson's logic is impeccable. This will be vital resource in a variety of disciplines. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. — Choice"

Stony Brook University - Lisa Diedrich

"A bold, critical intervention into the domains of disability studies, philosophy, and bioethics."

D. J. Winchester

Carlson (philosophy, Providence College) provides a valuable, in-depth exploration of the philosophical and moral underpinnings of understanding of persons with intellectual disabilities. She surveys historical perspectives over time, looking at how people with intellectual disabilities became increasingly marginalized in society and at how perception of this segment of society as 'other' resulted in the creation of the asylum and later the institution for the 'feeble-minded.' Within the confines of these institutions, residents were often treated as 'pets,' a conceit that is evident in current ethics discourse and debates surrounding animal rights and speciesism. Using the deconstructionist analysis pioneered by Michel Foucault, Carlson provides effective countervailing arguments against such ethicists as Peter Singer, who assume an equivalence between severely cognitively impaired infants and nonhuman animals, using potentialities as the criterion. Carlson argues that the complexities of human nature should be acknowledged and accepted within the social community. The book is a bit pedantic, but Carlson's logic is impeccable. This will be vital resource in a variety of disciplines. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. — Choice

D. J. Winchester]]>

Carlson (philosophy, Providence College) provides a valuable, in-depth exploration of the philosophical and moral underpinnings of understanding of persons with intellectual disabilities. She surveys historical perspectives over time, looking at how people with intellectual disabilities became increasingly marginalized in society and at how perception of this segment of society as 'other' resulted in the creation of the asylum and later the institution for the 'feeble-minded.' Within the confines of these institutions, residents were often treated as 'pets,' a conceit that is evident in current ethics discourse and debates surrounding animal rights and speciesism. Using the deconstructionist analysis pioneered by Michel Foucault, Carlson provides effective countervailing arguments against such ethicists as Peter Singer, who assume an equivalence between severely cognitively impaired infants and nonhuman animals, using potentialities as the criterion. Carlson argues that the complexities of human nature should be acknowledged and accepted within the social community. The book is a bit pedantic, but Carlson's logic is impeccable. This will be vital resource in a variety of disciplines. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. — Choice

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