Heidegger, Dasein and disability: re-thinking what it means to be ‘human’
Terri Fealy
School of History and Philosophy, UNSW
Contact Email:   terrifealyoptusnet.com.au

Citizenship relies on notions of what it means to be a human person. Within the western philosophical tradition the human person is understood to be an able-bodied, rational, autonomous and free individual who is also an economically producing member of society. Suffice it to say, many people with disability would not fit this criteria. Consequently citizenship, and the inclusion it implies, would seem to be denied them. What options are therefore available to challenge this philosophical based view?

Martin Heidegger, who was arguably one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century, challenged these traditional western philosophical views. By using a phenomenological approach to address the ontological question of what it means ‘to be’ a human person, he came up with an alternative understanding. In this paper I will outline his theory and explore the ways in which it enables inclusion for people with disability. I will then argue that Heidegger’s ontology provides a foundation that may potentially lead a political society that is able to recognise and value disability as part of the spectrum of what it means to be human.

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