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Disability and Achievement: A Reply to Campbell, Nyholm, and Walter.

Ian D Dunkle
Published in: The Journal of medicine and philosophy (2024)
In this article, I explore the impact of disability on one of life's goods: achievement. Contra Campbell, Nyholm, and Walter. I argue that construing the magnitude of achievements in terms of subjective effort trivializes what it means to achieve. This poses a problem for the authors' argument that disability, in general, does not reduce access to this good. I draw on an alternative construal of achievement that I have proposed elsewhere to show that, indeed, many disabilities do not restrict access to achievement. I defend this argument against an objection that it problematically relativizes the achievements of persons with disability, and I close with general lessons for future work.
Keyphrases
  • multiple sclerosis
  • current status
  • depressive symptoms