The Disabled Contract: Severe Intellectual Disability, Justice and Morality [Hardcover]

Beaudry shows how the social contract fails to take account of the moral status of people with severe intellectual disabilities.The social contract tradition, brought back to life by philosopher John Rawls in the late twentieth century, contains values and assumptions that are dear to our liberal ethos. This book examines how this important philosophical tradition nevertheless tends to exclude people with severe intellectual disabilities from the realm of justice.The social contract tradition, brought back to life by philosopher John Rawls in the late twentieth century, contains values and assumptions that are dear to our liberal ethos. This book examines how this important philosophical tradition nevertheless tends to exclude people with severe intellectual disabilities from the realm of justice.Social contract theories generally predicate the authority of rules that govern society on the idea that these rules are the product of a contractual agreement struck between members of society. These theories embody values, such as equality, reciprocity and rationality, that are highly prized within our culture. Yet a closer inspection reveals that these features exclude other important values, relations and even persons from the realm of contractual morality and justice, especially people with severe intellectual disabilities. Jonas-S?bastien Beaudry explores the moral status of intellectually disabled people in social contract thought and argues that this tradition needs to be revisited to include the most vulnerable. Addressing this problem will have concrete repercussions in law and policy, because many issues that people with disabilities face are connected to deeply rooted assumptions about their status as full citizens or full members of our moral, political and legal communities.1. Intellectual disability and the social contract; 2. Inclusive contractarianism: persons with severe intellectual disabilities within a society of self-interested contractors; 3. The capal<