The Philosophy of Autism

219 Pages·2012·2.076 MB·English

by  Jami L. Anderson, Simon Cushing (Eds.)

The Philosophy of Autism

The Philosophy of Autism
Edited by Jami L. Anderson & Simon Cushing
ROWMAN&LITTLEFIELDPUBLISHERS,INC.
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Anderson,JamiL.
Thephilosophyofautism/JamiL.Anderson&SimonCushing.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-1-4422-1707-2(cloth:alk.paper)--ISBN978-1-4422-1709-6(electronic)
1.Autism--Philosophy.I.Cushing,Simon,1968-II.Title.
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2012036099
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Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
JamiL.AndersonandSimonCushing
1 Autism:TheVeryIdea 17
SimonCushing
2 EmbodyingAutisticCognition:TowardsReconceivingCertain
“Autism-Related”BehavioralAtypicalitiesasFunctional 47
MichaelDoanandAndrewFenton
3 AutismandtheExtremeMaleBrain 73
RuthSample
4 IThink,ThereforeIAm.IAmVerbal,ThereforeILive. 103
NickPentzell
5 ADashofAutism 109
JamiL.Anderson
6 KnowingOtherMinds:EthicsandAutism 143
AnnaStubblefield
7 Autism,Empathy,andAffectiveFraming 167
MichelleMaiese
8 Advocacy,AutismandAutonomy 187
DavidDeVidi
Index 201
Contributors 207
v

Acknowledgments
WebothwanttothankMarissaParks,AssociateEditoratRowman&Little-
field; she was immediately excited about this project and has been fantasti-
callysupportivethroughthewholeprocess.
The initialideaforwritingthisbookwas not mine,but oncetheideawas in
my head, I was able to do my part because of the encouragement and assis-
tance I have received from people I would like to thank. I took my first
philosophy course, a freshman seminar, when I was barely seventeen years
old andhadnoideawhatI was doing with my life,fromJeffrie G. Murphy.
He is a brilliant teacher, truly gifted at showing how important and relevant
philosophy is. Although always supportive of my philosophical efforts, he
recently suggested that I write a philosophical reflection on my experiences
of parenting an autistic son; his kind and encouraging words inspired me to
write my chapter. Mike Brownell, Jennifer Sopka, Carol Fast, and Katie
Kramer have each been terrific sources of information about autism, but
more importantly, each was tremendously helpful to us and was (or, with
Mike, continuesto be) afabulousteacherandfriendforour son. EmilyVan
Brocklin, our Mary Poppins, has made the last six years possible and our
son’s life wonderful. There simply is no way we could have gotten through
them without her. Zea (a.k.a. Zena, Zeke, Zach) Miller’s gifted assistance
and(almost)constantgoodcheermadeworkingonthisbooksheerjoy.Let’s
worktogetheronanotherbook!And,ofcourse,Iwanttothankmyboys,all
threeofthem.
(JA)
My life would have been very different if it had not been for Anthony
Grayling,whowasnotonlymyfirstphilosophyteacher,butthepersonwho
vii
viii Acknowledgments
suggested to me that I should try the Graduate School Thing. I only applied
to one graduate school (the one he suggested) where I met my future co-
editor and life partner on the first day. So he’s got a lot to answer for. On
matters pertaining to the subject matter of this book, I would like to thank
Elizabeth Anderson for some great advice, and join Jami in thanking Emily
Van Brocklin, who has been perhaps the most important figure in our son’s
lifesincehewasababy.Ifthisbookwerededicatedtoanyone,itwouldbeto
her. Finally, the book almost certainly would not have happened if not for
Zea Miller, by-now graduate student at Purdue, who put in many hours of
invaluableeditingworkandreallyshouldbelistedasco-editorifweweren’t
suchglory-huntingcredit-hogs.
(SC)