Does life have meaning? What is flourishing? How do we attain the
good life? Philosophers, and many others of us, have explored these
questions for centuries. As Eva Feder Kittay points out, however,
there is a flaw in the essential premise of these questions: they
seem oblivious to the very nature of the ways in which humans live,
omitting a world of co-dependency, and of the fact that we live in
and through our bodies, whether they are fully abled or disabled.
Our dependent, vulnerable, messy, changeable, and embodied
experience colors everything about our lives both on the surface
and when it comes to deeper concepts, but we tend to leave aside
the body for the mind when it comes to philosophical matters.
Disability offers a powerful challenge to long-held philosophical
views about the nature of the good life, what provides meaning in
our lives, and the centrality of reason, as well as questions of
justice, dignity, and personhood. These concepts need not be
distant and idealized; the answers are right before us, in the way
humans interact with one another, care for one another, and need
one another-whether they possess full mental capacities or have
cognitive limitations. We need to revise our concepts of things
like dignity and personhood in light of this important correction,
Kittay argues. This is the first of two books in which Kittay will
grapple with just how we need to revisit core philosophical ideas
in light of disabled people's experience and way of being in the
world. Kittay, an award-winning philosopher who is also the mother
to a multiply-disabled daughter, interweaves the personal voice
with the philosophical as a critical method of philosophical
investigation. Here, she addresses why cognitive disability can
reorient us to what truly matters, and questions the centrality of
normalcy as part of a good life. With profound sensitivity and
insight, Kittay examines other difficult topics: How can we look at
the ethical questions regarding prenatal testing in light of a new
appreciation of the personhood of disabled people? What do new
possibilities in genetic testing imply for understanding
disability, the family, and bioethics? How can we reconsider the
importance of care, and how does it work best? In the process of
pursuing these questions, Kittay articulates an ethic of care,
which is the ethical theory most useful for claiming full rights
for disabled people and providing the opportunities for everyone to
live joyful and fulfilling lives. She applies the lessons of care
to the controversial alteration of severely cognitively disabled
children known as the Ashley Treatment, whereby a child's growth is
halted with extensive estrogen treatment and related bodily
interventions are justified. This book both imparts lessons that
advocate on behalf of those with significant disabilities, and
constructs a moral theory grounded on our ability to give, receive,
and share care and love. Above all, it aims to adjust social
attitudes and misconceptions about life with disability.
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