Some readers/listeners of BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY have asked about the direction of the argument in my presentation to the Arché Feminist Philosophy and Social Theory Seminar at University of St. Andrews next week. So, I have copied the abstract for the presentation below. The seminar runs from 2-4pm GMT. If you would like to join the Zoom session for the seminar, please contact Emilia Wilson, the coordinator of the St. Andrews Feminist Philosophy and Social Theory Seminar, at ew58 [at] st-andrews [dot]ac[dot]uk 

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On the Problematization and Naturalization of Disability in Philosophy:

Lessons from (Feminist) Philosophy of Disability

Abstract

In this presentation, I provide a snapshot of my work to date on both the problematization and naturalization of disability in philosophy, paying particular attention to how an individualized and medicalized conception of disability is naturalized in feminist philosophy. Throughout the presentation, I offer examples of how disabled people are represented in philosophical discourse as a problem to be rectified, if not eliminated, and explain how the prevalence of this individualized and medicalized understanding of disability in philosophy contributes to and reinforces the exclusion of disabled philosophers from the profession of philosophy. I end the presentation with remarks about how the individualized and medicalized conception of disability conditions current philosophical and popular responses to the predictable COVID-19 tragedy that has unfolded in nursing homes, group homes, and other institutions in which seniors, elders, and younger disabled people are put, offering an alternative to the way that proponents of care ethics represent this grievous state of affairs.