Intellectual Disability Ethics, Dehumanization, and a New Moral Community

by Keith, Heather; Keith, Kenneth D.

• ISBN13: 9780470674321
• ISBN10: 0470674326
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-05-13
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Intellectual Disabilities: Dehumanization and a New Moral Community evaluates the role of psychology, philosophy, and education in shaping cultural views toward people with intellectual disabilities. With an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the social construction of intellectual disability, this book has value for moral philosophers, psychologists, educators, and others invested in issues of intellectual disability. The authors offer evidence and support for a more expansive view of moral engagement, which values diversity over hierarchy and community over individual rationality.

Author Biography

Heather E. Keith is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Green Mountain College, Vermont. Her work has appeared in such publications as The Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, The Journal of Chinese Philosophy, Streams of William James, and the Encyclopedia of American Philosophy.

Kenneth D. Keith is Professor Emeritus of Psychological Sciences at the University of San Diego. The author, co-author, or editor of more than 100 scientific and professional publications including The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Keith is also a Fellow of the American Psychological Association in the divisions on teaching and on international psychology, and a Fellow of the Western Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii

Prologue:Why Study Disability? ix

Part I The Roots of Dehumanization 1

1 Intellectual Disability: History and Evolution of Definitions 3

2 The Social Construction of Purgatory: Ideas and Institutions 19

3 A Failure of Intelligence 37

4 The Consequences of Reason: Moral Philosophy and Intelligence 53

Part II Out of the Darkness 77

5 Defining the Person: The Moral and Social Consequences of Philosophies of Selfhood 79

6 Alternative Views of Moral Engagement: Relationality and Rationality 95

7 Culture and Intellectual Disability 116

Part III Disability Ethics for a New Age 131

8 Quality of Life and Perception of Self 133

9 Application and Best Practices: Rights, Education, and Ethics 151

10 Epilogue: Visions of the Future 170

References 177

Name Index 215

Subject Index 225