Foucault and Feminist Philosophy of Disability

Convention holds that there are only certain subjects that philosophy may address, Tremain has found, and disability is not one of them. It also holds that only certain approaches to disability are valid, and philosophy is not one of them. She suspects these conventions may be connected to the under-representation of disabled people working in philosophy, but forged ahead nevertheless. She discusses groundwork for a feminist philosophy of disability; power and normalization; historicizing and relativizing philosophy of disability; Foucault, feminism, and disability; bioethics as a technology of government; and a call for more dialogue about disability. Annotation ©2018 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
Addresses misrepresentations of Foucault’s work within feminist philosophy and disability studies, offering a new feminist philosophy of disability
Foucault and Feminist Philosophy of Disability is a distinctive contribution to growing discussions about how power operates within the academic field of philosophy. By combining the work of Michel Foucault, the insights of philosophy of disability and feminist philosophy, and data derived from empirical research, Shelley L. Tremain compellingly argues that the conception of disability that currently predominates in the discipline of philosophy, according to which disability is a natural disadvantage or personal misfortune, is inextricably intertwined with the underrepresentation of disabled philosophers in the profession of philosophy. Against the understanding of disability that prevails in subfields of philosophy such as bioethics, cognitive science, ethics, and political philosophy, Tremain elaborates a new conception of disability as a historically specifi c and culturally relative apparatus of power. Although the book zeros in on the demographics of and biases embedded in academic philosophy, it will be invaluable to everyone who is concerned about the social, economic, institutional, and political subordination of disabled people.