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Philosophy 409 – Philosophy and Disability

Instructor: Sara Goering
Office: Savery 331C
Email: sgoering@u.washington.edu
Phone: (206) 616-2102
Office hrs: TBA

Brief description: Disability is a subject that has attracted significant attention in philosophy and bioethics, but historically in a very negative light (e.g., it is raised in regard to how disabled a newborn must be in order to justify non-treatment, or why assisted suicide/euthanasia might be justified when some lives are so disabled as to make death preferable to continued existence). This treatment of disability rests on longstanding misconceptions and stereotypes about the disadvantages of impairment. Recent philosophical work from a wide variety of perspectives (e.g., feminist, liberal, communitarian) suggests that philosophers would benefit from rethinking the nature of our moral and political obligations through attention to the concept and experience of disability. Are disability and dependence at the core of what it is to be human (much more than traditional liberal social contract theories have admitted)? What are society's obligations to people with non-standard functioning in regard to inclusion in the dominant cooperative framework? Attention to the concept and experience of disability allows us to rethink some of the fundamental philosophical assumptions about personhood, dependence, autonomy, opportunity, and justice. These more abstract concepts have real world significance in a number of practical arenas, such as prenatal testing, special education, insurance coverage, and workplace accommodations.

This course counts as an elective for the UW disability studies minor.

Learning objectives: Students will learn to identify philosophical issues regarding disability and impairment, articulate the social, medical, and civil rights models of disability, relate these models of disability to existing health and social disparities between disabled and non-disabled groups, recognize how these models affect practices such as prenatal testing, insurance, and workplace accommodations, formulate arguments about these issues, and critique the arguments of others.

Texts:

Erik Parens and Adrienne Asch (eds.) Prenatal Testing and Disability Rights Washington DC : Georgetown University Press, 2000.

David Wasserman, Jerome Bickenbach and Robert Wachbroit Quality of Life and Human Difference: Genetic Testing, Health Care and Disability New York : Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Anita Silvers, David Wasserman and Mary Mahowald (authors) Disability, Difference and Discrimination Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998.

Recommended: Ruth O'Brien (ed.) Voices from the Edge: Narratives about the Americans with Disabilities Act New York : Oxford University Press, 2004.

Requirements:

Reading responses (10 required) 10%
Paper 1 25%
Paper 2 30%
Paper 3 35%

Students should turn in ten reading responses. For the class sessions you choose, write 1-2 pages that critically engage the material in the assigned readings for the day. The reading responses will be due at the beginning of class, and students must be present in the class to get credit for them (i.e., the responses can't be simply dropped off at the beginning – the “drop and run” – nor can they be emailed in advance or turned in late).

Students with disabilities may contact Disabled Student Services at (206) 543-8924/V, (206) 543-8925/TTY, (206) 616-8379/FAX or email uwdss@u.washington.edu for assistance. If you have a disability or any other situation that requires academic accommodation, please discuss this with me early in the term.

Tentative schedule:

Tu March 28 Introduction to the course/what is philosophy of disability

Rethinking the philosophical assumption of independent, rational, self-interested able-bodied individuals: equality of dependence/equality in connection.
Th March 30 Kittay, Part I – The requirements of dependency ( Love's Labor ) in reader

Tu April 4 Macintyre, Chap 10 “The virtues of acknowledged dependence” and Chap. 11 “The political and social structures of the common good” (from Dependent Rational Animals) in reader

Th April 6 Nussbaum, disability chapter from Frontiers of Justice: Disability, Nationality, Species Membership Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 2006 , in reader

Models of disability/phenomenological experience of disability
Tu April 11 Rethinking the medical model of disability (Amundson in QOL and Human Difference ; Silvers “A Fatal Attraction to Normalizing: Treating Disabilities as Deviations from Species-Typical Functioning”) both in reader

Th April 13 Social and Civil Rights models of disability; Film: The Disabled Century (or possibly film: When Billy Broke His Head)

Tu April 18 What is disabling about impairment? Wendell selection in reader, selections from Voices from the Edge

Th April 20 Speaking for oneself – selections from James Charlton Nothing About Us Without Us: Disability Oppression and Empowerment (in reader); selected stories from Voices from the Edge.

Justice theory and disability: equality of opportunity, capability, and inclusion
Tu April 25 Justice as equality of opportunity (Buchanan in reader)

Th April 27 Part 1 – Distributive Justice (Wasserman section of DDD )

Tu May 2 Part II – Formal Justice (Silvers section of DDD )

Th May 4 Part III – Feminist Standpoint Theory (Mahowald section of DDD ) plus all responses

Prenatal testing
Tu May 9 Prenatal Testing – Part I and Part II of PNT & Disability Rts (overview and the meaning of parenting – read Parens & Asch, Powell, Ferguson et al., and Ruddick); also selection from Rapp (reader)

Th May 11 Prenatal Testing – Part II and Part III of PNT & Disability Rts (the expressivist meaning of PNT – read Baily, Saxton, Steinbock)

Tu May 16 The expressivist argument continued (read Kittay and Kittay, Nelson, Press, and Asch)

Th May 18 Prenatal Testing – Part IV of PNT & Disability Rts (policy recommendations – read Wertz, Botkin, Ossario and Ralston)

Quality of life and disability – epistemological and ethical issues in judgments of quality
Tu May 23 Quality of Life and Human Difference Introduction, Wachbroit, and Nord

Th May 25 Quality of Life and Human Difference Brock and McMahan

Tu May 30 Quality of Life and Human Difference Asch and Wasserman, Shakespeare, Bickenbach

Th June 1 Wrap-up, evaluations, future issues in philosophy of disability

Final papers are due during finals week, Wednesday June 7, by 5 p.m.