Abstract
Aristotle would hardly be the first person one would think of when looking for an enlightened understanding of disability. The ancient Greek world in general did not have what we today would consider a progressive attitude towards disability, of course, but it is likely that Aristotle’s thought set the standard for conceptualizing disability for more than a millennium to follow. He explicitly endorsed, in the Politics,1 the common Greek practice of leaving “deformed” babies to die of exposure and is reputed to have claimed that those “born deaf become senseless and incapable of reason.”2 Given Aristotle’s view of women and “natural slaves,” it hardly comes as a shock that he held a less than estimable view of persons with disabilities.