Licia Carlson

Philosophical perspectives on response shift

PurposeThis paper brings a philosophical perspective to response shift research with the aim of raising new critical questions, clarifying some of the concepts employed, and providing a philosophical context within which to critically examine the assumptions that shape the field.MethodsThis critical analysis aims to reveal assumptions and clarify concepts and/or definitions that undergird methodological practice and theory.ResultsWe bring attention to the distinction of weak and strong evaluations, and the implications and consequences for construct validity and for designing patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). We then consider the epistemology of PROMs, suggesting that they are better suited to a social constructivist approach than a scientific realist one. Finally, we examine the relationship between disability and response shift, arguing that in at least some cases, response shifts should not be understood as ‘measurement bias’.ConclusionOur analysis reveals various concerns and further questions related to the role that substantive values play in the assessment of QoL. It also draws response shift into a wider arena, with broader issues of interpretation, self-evaluation, the meaning of the ‘good life’, and the status and legitimacy we accord to various scientific methods.

Intelligence, Disability, and Race: Intersections and Critical Questions

Historically, many theories of racial inferiority have been articulated in terms of intellectual and cognitive incapacity; at the same time, many definitions and categories of intellectual disability bear the mark of racist ideologies and racialized notions of disease, including genetic, biological, anatomical, and physiological abnormalities. As a philosopher, much of my work has been focused on exposing and critiquing the ways that “the intellectually disabled” have been addressed in philosophy. Yet similar questions can be asked of other disciplines: How is intellectual disability defined and constructed as an object of knowledge? In what ways are the concepts and categories that underlie this broad designation gendered and racialized? How are specific populations identified as “intellectually disabled” in these contexts, and what arguments are made regarding how they should be treated? Just as the tools of Critical Race Theory can be brought to bear upon the health sciences, critical disability theorists employ disability as a conceptual lens of analysis and have challenged the ways that disability is defined, represented, and addressed in the context of health care. The field of critical disability studies encompasses a broad range of interdisciplinary work that includes (though is not limited to): identifying and combating forms of ableism and disablism; tracing disability history and disability culture; advocating for disability rights and challenging discrimination, oppression, and violence; theorizing the meaning of disability and disabled identity; and claiming disability as a mode of being in the world to be celebrated (hence the term disability pride) rather than a tragedy to be pitied and avoided. To bring Critical Race Theory and a critical disability perspective into dialogue is to recognize the intersectionality of

Musical Becoming: Intellectual Disability and the Transformative Power of Music

In many ways, my interests in philosophy, music, and intellectual disability began in three-part harmony. I became interested in the connections between philosophy and intellectual disability when, as an undergraduate, I would go from a volunteer job in a classroom for children labeled “multiply handicapped” to a seminar on the Platonic dialogues. I wondered what philosophers had to say about individuals who appeared to lack what they had defined as that most human quality—reason—and thus began my interest in the relationship between philosophy and disability. At the same time, my encounters with the children at the Rehabilitation School were musical ones. There were many students in the classroom where I worked who were incredibly musical, and being a musician myself, I was eager to share this world with them. In playing and listening to music together, in both traditional and very nontraditional ways, I forged an immediate connection with them: one grounded in a shared world, a mutual love for what many would call a distinctly human experience.