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Abstract:
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.