APA Committees

Justice for All?

SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY
Philosophy Department
Seminar in Contemporary Moral Issues

Course Title: JUSTICE FOR ALL?

Professor Anita Silvers
How classical political morality is transformed by the politics of recognition and by racial, feminist and disability identity strategies, with emphasis on theories of equality and rights for people who are physically or cognitively different from the traditionally dominant group.

COURSE OUTLINE
1. Political morality: the philosophical foundations of liberalism.
2. Taking political morality seriously
3. The Politics of Recognition
4. The Politics of Recognition: Disability Identity
5. Feminist Standpoint Theory and the Disability Experience
6. Color Conscious and the Double Consciousness
7. Segregation and Commodification: Institutionalization and Inclusion
8. Diversity and Discrimination, Social and Legal Change
9. Formal Justice and Civil Rights
10. Distributive Justice and Welfare Rights
11. Alternatives to Justice
12. Dependency and Neediness, Theories of Caring
13. Presentation of Projects
14. Presentation of Projects
15. Vulnerable Populations: The Tuskegee Experiment and Physician Assisted Suicide

READING LIST:

Amundson, Ron. "Disability, Handicap, and the Environment"
Appiah,Kwame Anthony & Gutmann,Amy. Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race
Arras, John and Bonnie Steinbock. Ethical Issues in Modern Medicine
Barnartt, Sharon "Disability Culture or Disability Consciousness?"
Bartky, Sandra Lee. "Psychological Oppression"
Baynton, Douglas. Forbidden Signs: American Culture and the Campaign Against Sign Language.
Bickenbach, Jerome. Physical Disability and Social Policy
Buchanan, Allen. "Choosing Who Will Be Disabled: Genetic Intervention and the Morality of Inclusion"
Couser, G. Thomas. Recovering Bodies: Illness, Disability and Life Writing
Crenshaw, Kimberle. "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics"
Du Bois, W.E.B. "The Souls of Black Folks" in Three Negro Classics
Dworkin, Ronald. "What Is Equality?: Equality of Welfare."
"What Is Equality?: Equality of Resources"
"Foundations of Liberal Equality"
Francis, Leslie and Silvers, Anita. Americans With Disabilities: Implications of the Law for Individuals and Institutions
Frye, Marilyn. "Oppression" from The Politics of Reality: Essays In Feminist Theory
Funk, Robert "Disability Rights: From Caste To Class in the Context of Civil Rights"
Galler, Roberta. "The myth of the perfect body".
Hahn, Harlan. "Civil Rights for Disabled Americans: The Foundation of a Political Agenda"
Kittay, Eva. "Human Dependency and Rawlsian Equality"
"Taking Dependency Seriously: Social Cooperation,
The Family Medical Leave Act, and Gender Equality Considered" In
The Light of the Social Organization of Dependency Work
Love's Labor
Koppel, Christine. Perspectives on Equality: Constructing A Rational Theory
Lott, Tommy. "Du Bois on the Invention of Race"
Minow, Martha. Making All the Difference: Inclusion, Exclusion and American Law
Morris, Jenny. Pride Against Prejudice
Rawls, John. Political Liberalism
"Justice As Fairness: Political Not Metaphysical"
Sen, Amartya. Commodities and Capabilities
Silvers, Anita. "Damaged Goods: Does Disability DisQALYfy
People From Just Health Care?"
"Women and Disability", from the Blackwell's Companion to Feminist Philosophy
"Disability Rights", from the Encyclopedia of Bioethics
"Agency, Dependency, and Disability" from the Encyclopedia of Ethics
"Disability and Gender", from the Blacwell's Companion to Gender Studies
"Disability", from the Oxford Handbook of Practical Ethics
"Reprising Women's Disability:
Feminist Identity Strategy and Disability Rights"
"Double Consciousness, Triple Difference:
Disability, Race, Gender and the Politics of Recognition"
Silvers, Anita (with Mary Mahowald and David Wasserman)
Disability, Difference, Discrimination
Silvers, Anita (with Michael Ashley Stein)"From Plessy (1896) and Goesart (1948) to Cleburne (1986) and Garett (2001): A Chill Wind from the Past Blows Equal Protection Away"
Silvers, Anita (with Margaret Battin and Rosamond Rhodes)
Physician Assisted Suicide: Expanding the Debate
Medicine and social Justice: Essays on the Distribution of
Health Care
Taylor,Charles, Gutmann,Amy, Rockefeller,Stephen, Walzer,Michael,
Wolf,Susan Multiculturalism and "The Politics of Recognition"
Thomson, Rosemarie Garland. Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring
Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature
Trent, James. Inventing The Feeble Mind
Wendell, Susan. The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections On Disability
Williams, Patricia. The Alchemy of Race and Rights
Young, Iris Marion. Justice and the Politics of Difference
Throwing Like A Girl and Other Essays in
Feminist Philosophy and Social Theory

COURSE REQUIREMENTS: Participation in Seminar Discussions, two class presentations: (1) Analysis of reading and leadership of discussion) and (2) Defense of proposal for final paper, and a fifteen to twenty page final research paper.

GRADING: A through F and Cr/NCr.