This volume explores interesting and emerging philosophical questions related to autism. It sheds light on the ways in which cultural attitudes about autism have changed in the decade since the editors published their first volume on the philosophy of autism.
So much about autism has changed in the last decade. Cultural attitudes about autism are far more nuanced. Self-identification as autistic has exploded, as have discussions of the political and social implications for being an out autistic person. This volume approaches a wide range of issues that autism raises in social and political theory, ethics, philosophy of social science, epistemology, metaphysics, and law. The issues addressed include moral responsibility, autism and gender, knowledge acquisition, the double empathy problem, social cognition, vulnerability in interpersonal communication, masking, the neurodiversity movement and destigmatization, and the effectiveness of ABA therapy. Each of the contributors, many of whom self-identify as autistic, has a personal connection with autism.
Contemporary Philosophy of Autism will appeal to researchers and graduate students working in philosophy of mind, philosophy of cognitive science, epistemology, philosophy of medicine, and disability studies. It will appeal to those working in other academic fields such as developmental psychology, neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, and education.
Introduction 1. Autistic Vulnerability to Intellectual Arrogance 2. Moral Responsibility and Autism 3. Autism, the Double Empathy Problem and Feelings the Emotions of Another Person 4. Autism From the Second Person Perspective 5. Autism and Gender 6. Autism, Care, and the Limits of Destigmatization 7. Elephants and Armadillos: Anti-Autistic Ideology Forms an Anti-Autistic World 8. Ain’t Misbehavin’: Scrapping Applied Behavioral Analysis 9. Masking as Persona Flexibility 10. Re-Examining Knowledge: Sensory and Social Challenges in the Autistic Community 11. The Thing of It Isn’t: Defending Eliminativism About Autism
Jami L. Anderson is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan-Flint and an Associate Teaching Professor in the Wayne State University Law School. She co-edited The Philosophy of Autism. She is currently working on a monograph titled Special Risk of Wrongful Execution: Atkins v. Virginia and the Illusory Prohibition of the Execution of Intellectually Impaired Criminals in the U.S. Simon Cushing is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan-Flint, co-editor of The Philosophy of Autism, editor of Heaven and Philosophy and New Philosophical Essays on Love and Loving. He is currently working on a monograph about the metaphysics of abortion.
Reviews for Contemporary Philosophy of Autism
“An important addition to analytic philosophy of autism”. Robert Chapman, Assistant Professor in Critical Neurodiversity Studies, Institute for Medical Humanities at Durham University, UK “This volume captures crucial perspectives in that the authors of each paper include at least one with direct, personal experience of autism, and thereby provides a unique and invaluable contribution to the literature on autism. It should interest anyone concerned with what autism is like “from the inside” and also the felt adequacy of various techniques designed to mitigate its effects. It also provides insightful discussion of the broader questions of how to describe inner experiences in a way that makes them intelligible to those who have not had them, how to determine whether a response is empathetic, and what it is to be a person who endures through time, and to be an autonomous—and moral—agent”. Janet Levin, Professor Emerita of Philosophy, University of Southern California, USA
