I think the process of becoming disabled and the early process of adapating is certainly a net negative, but that disability itself need not be. Being born deaf means you can't hear, but some deaf people think that is outweighed by things like having a unique experience of language and music. The process of rapidly going deaf, for me, wo…
I think the process of becoming disabled and the early process of adapating is certainly a net negative, but that disability itself need not be. Being born deaf means you can't hear, but some deaf people think that is outweighed by things like having a unique experience of language and music. The process of rapidly going deaf, for me, would massively interfere with my life and be pretty awful. But not awful a priori.
My thinking on this is largely informed by Elizabeth Barnes' work – she's one of the more thoughtful 'social model' writers that doesn't just say things like 'actually disability only exists because of ableism' (see this paper arguing that a 'mere difference' theory of disability does not entail that curing disability is immoral or that it is not immoral to cause someone else to become disabled: https://elizabethbarnesphilosophy.weebly.com/uploads/3/8/1/0/38105685/causing_disability.pdf)
I think the process of becoming disabled and the early process of adapating is certainly a net negative, but that disability itself need not be. Being born deaf means you can't hear, but some deaf people think that is outweighed by things like having a unique experience of language and music. The process of rapidly going deaf, for me, would massively interfere with my life and be pretty awful. But not awful a priori.
My thinking on this is largely informed by Elizabeth Barnes' work – she's one of the more thoughtful 'social model' writers that doesn't just say things like 'actually disability only exists because of ableism' (see this paper arguing that a 'mere difference' theory of disability does not entail that curing disability is immoral or that it is not immoral to cause someone else to become disabled: https://elizabethbarnesphilosophy.weebly.com/uploads/3/8/1/0/38105685/causing_disability.pdf)
If you cannot hear the person behind you shouting that you're about to walk into an open pit that is a huge disadvantage in my book.
And yet there's nothing inherent to being deaf that means that will happen to you, so once again it isn't bad 'by definition'.
With cochlear implants are you still by definition deaf versus merely hearing impaired?