The Animal That Does Not Speak: Disability and the Limits of the Human

Abstract

In this paper we aim to expose how some tacitly-assumed ontological and ethical premises in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights have historically hindered the construction of moral paradigms inclusive with disability. We therefore argue that a central part of this philosophical challenge must be the exposure and revision of these general premises, which have been blurred by historical assimilation yet are nevertheless important in ordinary ethical and political debates. This paper will try to highlight the deficiency of our traditional concepts when we try to face this problem from an ethical point of view. We will then try to propound some other conceptual categories so as to set up an inclusive, efficient and satisfactory moral theory for intellectual disability