Rationality and Disability

The relationship between rational thought and disability came up in slightly different contexts in the Price, Gabbard, and McBride Johnson articles. Price examines the complicated relationship between academia and the mentally disabled (mentally ill,neuroatypical, or psychosocially disabled) community and the tendency for the former to exclude the other. Society's assumption seems to be that the structure of academia as it is and has been is the best way to teach and learn; unfortunately this leaves people with mental disabilities at a serious disadvantage more often than not because the "topoi", as Price calls them, frequently demand abilities that not everyone possesses. As a result, those with mental disabilities are excluded and assumed to be incapable of the high level thinking and understanding that seems to be exclusive to the academic world. Gabbard shares his experience with his serioiusly cognatively and physically disabled son, August. He asserts that August's inability for rational thought does not disqualify him of his personhood. McBride Johnson also notes that the disabled person's desire to live is "irrational" because of the assumption that their lives are suffering. These authors all contribute to the idea that society values rationality highly but only attributes it to those deemed worthy, regardless of the disabled person's actual capacity for rational thought.