Response: Making Yourself Useful
In this essay I reply to Stanley Hauerwas' reading of my book, Life as We Know It, by way of engaging Hauerwas' critique of Enlightenment humanism, and, more specifically, the Kantian categorical imperative. I argue that Hauerwas is mistaken to claim that “humanism cannot help but think th...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2005
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| In: |
Journal of religion, disability & health
Year: 2005, Volume: 8, Issue: 3/4, Pages: 31-36 |
| Further subjects: | B
Disability
B Autonomy B Dependency B Humanism |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In this essay I reply to Stanley Hauerwas' reading of my book, Life as We Know It, by way of engaging Hauerwas' critique of Enlightenment humanism, and, more specifically, the Kantian categorical imperative. I argue that Hauerwas is mistaken to claim that “humanism cannot help but think that, all things considered, it would be better if [the mentally handicapped] did not exist,” even as I agree in part with his trenchant critique of my own work and of the widely-accepted Kantian proposition that human beings should treat each other as ends in themselves, never as means to an end. Finally, I defend my antifoundationalist formulation of moral “obligation” with regard to persons with mental disabilities against Hauerwas's Christian critique thereof by noting that even Hauerwas, at a critical juncture of his argument, relies on a pragmatist, antifoundationalist understanding of what it means to “help” other humans-and what it means to make oneself useful. |
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| ISSN: | 1522-9122 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of religion, disability & health
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1300/J095v08n03_04 |