Philosophy as a field has long assumed that disabled people’s inequalities come naturally from their bodies, not from society. Because of that, philosophers think that disability is something for doctors and scientists to deal with- not something for philosophy to question or analyze. This bias keeps philosophy from recognizing that disability itself is a philosophical and political issue- one that involves power, history, and how we define what it means to be human. 

Mainstream Philosophy's Self-Removal from Critical Analysis of Disability

- The historical composition and demographics of professional philosophy itself, 
- The narrowing concentration of the prevailing subject matter and techniques of philosophy, 
- The increasingly close association between philosophy and the sciences, and 
- The otherwise limited theoretical, discursive, and political focus of much philosophy

Arizona State University

As long as feminist philosophers accept the same foundational picture of disability (as a biological “fact” rather than a socially produced category), they’re still operating within the same power/knowledge system that marginalizes disabled people. 

Tremain's Argument in Feminist Philosophy 

Tremain, S. L. (2017). Foucault and feminist philosophy of disability. University of Michigan Press.

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