Living Disability: Ways Forward from Decontextual Models of Disability consists
of six articles that provide both theoretical and pragmatic commentaries on decontextual
approaches to vulnerability and disability. In What Contemporary Models of Disability
Miss: The Case for a Phenomenological Hermeneutic Analysis I argue many commonly
accepted models for understanding disability use a vertical method in which disability is
defined as a category into which people are slotted based on whether or not they fit its
definitional criteria. This method inevitably homogenizes the experiences of disabled
people. A hermeneutic investigation of commonly accepted models for understanding
disability will provide an epistemological tool to critique and to augment contemporary
models of disability. In A Phenomenological Hermeneutic Resolution to the Principlist-
Narrative Bioethics Debate Narrative, I note narrative approaches to bioethics and
principlist approaches to bioethics have often been presented in fundamental opposition
to each other. I argue that a phenomenological hermeneutic approach to the debate finds a
compromise between both positions that maintains what is valuable in each of them.
Justifying an Adequate Response to the Vulnerable Other examines the possibility of
endorsing the position that I, as a moral agent, ought to do my best to respond adequately
to the other’s vulnerability. I contend that, insofar as I value my personal identity, it is
consistent to work toward responding adequately to the vulnerability of the other both
ontologically and ethically. Who Can Make a Yes?: Disability, Gender, Sexual Consent
and ‘Yes Means Yes’ examines the ‘yes means yes’ model of sexual consent, and the
political and ethical commitments that underpin this model, noting three fundamental
Ph.D. Thesis – C. Kavanagh; McMaster University - Philosophy
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disadvantages. This position unfairly polices the sexual expression of participants,
particularly vulnerable participants such as disabled people, it demands an unreasonably
high standard for defining sexual interaction as consensual, and allows perpetrators of
sexual violence to define consent. In Craving Sameness, Accepting Difference: The
Possibility of Solidarity and Social Justice I note realist accounts typically define
solidarity on the basis of a static feature of human nature. We stand in solidarity with
some other person, or group of people, because we share important features in common.
In opposition to such realist accounts, Richard Rorty defines solidarity as a practical tool,
within which there is always an ‘us’, with whom we stand in solidarity, and a ‘them’,
with whom we are contrasted. I argue that by understanding Rorty’s pragmatic solidarity
in terms of the relational view of solidarity offered by Alexis Shotwell, it is possible to
conceptualise solidarity in a manner that allows for extending the boundaries of the
community with whom we stand in solidarity. In Translating Non-Human Actors I
examine Bruno Latour’s position that nonhuman things can be made to leave
interpretable statements, and have a place in democracy. With the right types of
mediators, the scientist can translate for non-humans, and those voices will allow for nonhuman
political representation. I wish to suggest that, like scientists, people with
disabilities are particularly capable of building networks that facilitate translation
between humans and non-humans. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Living Disability: Ways Forward from Decontextual Models of Disability consists of six separate articles that provide both theoretical and pragmatic commentaries on decontextual approaches to vulnerability and disability. The first three articles examine contemporary approaches to understanding vulnerability and disability, and explore what a contextual theoretical approach, one that puts the experiences of people with disabilities at the centre, might look like. The second three articles provide a bioethical examination of practical ethical questions associated with the treatment of people with disabilities when it comes to social and political positions on disability and sexuality, solidarity with people with disabilities, and the relationship between people with disabilities and objects.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/25199 |
| Date | January 2020 |
| Creators | Kavanagh, Chandra |
| Contributors | Gedge, Elisabeth, Philosophy |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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