I attempt to trace Heidegger’s development from existential phenomenology to the task of

thinking, by way of analyzing the impairment-disability problem in late modern societies. I

contend that Heidegger’s critique of Cartesian subjectivity is a useful starting point for

understanding the experience of impaired persons and the world of disability. Thence, I link this

experience to the problems of the will and modern nihilism that form so much of Heidegger’s

critique of contemporary life. I argue that both Heidegger’s critique of technology and the will

can help us
understand the thanotopolitical dimensions of able bodied/minded normativity,

suggesting that disability studies can enhance an analysis of Heidegger’s writings and Heidegger

can provide a much needed philosophic framework to disability studies.