Barnes seeks an account of the nature of disability that (i) delivers correct verdicts for paradigm cases, (ii) doesn't prejudge normative issues, (iii) is unifying or explanatory, and (iv) is not circular (10-13).

In what follows, we offer partial overviews of each chapter and raise a few worries.Ĭhapter 1 delves into the metaphysics of disability. Being disabled, like being gay or being male, is not in itself something that makes people's lives go worse for them. In her engaging, powerfully argued, and good-humored book, Barnes seeks to illuminate the nature of physical disability, challenge the view that it has a negative impact on well-being, and defend a 'mere-difference view' of disability. This is the dominant contemporary view about the relationship between disability and well-being, and Elizabeth Barnes is here to tell us that it is mistaken. Most people, and perhaps most philosophers, assume that having a disability is virtually always harmful and bad for those who are disabled, and that this is not simply due to such things as prejudice and discrimination, social ostracism, or lack of accommodations. Ask random people on the street what their greatest fears are, and disability is likely to appear high on their list - right up there with death and public speaking.

Elizabeth barnes the minority body