Thinking in Action:
Some Reflections on “Cognitive Disability: A Challenge to Moral Philosophy”
In September 2008, an important conference on cognitive disability and moral philosophy in New York pulled together some of the leading thinkers on these two topics. The conference was organized by Eva Feder Kittay at Stony Brook University, Licia Carlson at Harvard University, and Sophia Wong at Long Island University. All talks and discussions were videotaped and are available here.
In the interests of furthering some of these discussions, the What Sorts Network decided to host a series of blog posts using clips from these talks and discussions, starting in December 2008 and running on the blog over the following few months. We looked for short, relatively self-contained clips about which one or more of us thought we had something to say, aiming to create posts that would stimulate some immediate discussion, as well as serve as resources for teaching and community discussion in the longer run. Those who posted included Dick Sobsey (on several clips from Peter Singer’s talks, as well as on animal rights), Rob Wilson (on a question from Naomi Scheman, an exchange between Jeff McMahan and Eva Kittay, and on a question from Sophia Wong on thought experiments and harm); Marc Workman (on a clip from McMahan on "what matters"); Catherine Clune-Taylor (on a clip from Anna Stubblefield’s talk on race and disability); Angie Harris (on an exchange between Henry Richardson and Anita Silvers on dependence); Ron Amundson on Tori McGeer vs Ian Hacking over theory of mind and autism; and Julie Maybee on Licia Carlson’s talk on moral authority, and on the “Samantha case”.
Thanks again to all those who posted. The full series of posts can be found right here, or by going to the What Sorts blog and searching under the category “Thinking in Action”.