History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps · Peter Adamson

HoP 442 - Scott Williams on Disability and the New World

·43 min·4 clips

Why did Boethius add rationality to the definition of personhood, and how does it affect moral equality today?

Start with disability, then the new world. Adamson sets up the interview around philosophy of disability and the recent run of episodes on Europeans encountering the Americans. Williams begins with disability rights movements and the work of theorizing disability, but the conversation does not treat disability as a side issue. It becomes a way into moral status, human nature, and the words societies use to describe people. The discussion then tightens around personhood. Older accounts do not work like many modern ones. Williams contrasts Byzantine personhood, an individual of a nature, with Boethian personhood, an individual of a rational nature. On his reading, those accounts can support equal moral status for every human being. Modern cognitive accounts are trickier. When personhood depends on self-knowledge, deliberation, or similar capacities, the term can start doing different ethical work, especially around disability. Translation is the sneaky part. Williams points out that English versions of Thomas Aquinas sometimes use person where the Latin says human, one, or subject. That may look small, but it can change how the passage lands. Readers may think personhood is more central to the argument than it was, partly because contemporary English often treats person as close to individual human. Adamson takes the historical lesson seriously. The history of philosophy can make familiar concepts feel less automatic. That matters because the current meaning of personhood should not get a free pass in ethical theory. The episode closes with Adamson saying he will watch more carefully for disability in future episodes, starting with humanism in Spain and Portugal, especially Spain, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

As heard by us

A sharp, historical look at personhood through disability and the encounter with the Americas.

Peter Adamson and Scott Williams use disability philosophy to press on a basic question: what do people mean when they call someone a person? The discussion starts in disability rights, then moves through Byzantine and Boethian ideas of personhood.

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Press play if you want disability theory tied to personhood, translation, and the New World.

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