Christopher A. Riddle is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Utica College, where he is also the Director of the Applied Ethics Institute. He works in political philosophy and applied ethics, with a focus on the experience of disability.
What is your favorite thing that you’ve written?
I’ve written a few articles on assisted dying and its impact on people with disabilities. I am particularly proud of these articles because of all my work, they have had the most impact on important matters of public consequence. As a result of my involvement in this debate, I was asked to testify before the New York State Assembly Committee on Health in 2018 in support of the proposed medical aid in dying legislation.
What are you most proud of in your professional life?
In 2018 I was awarded the Dr. Virgil Crisafulli Distinguished Teaching Award at Utica College. Being at a College that focuses first and foremost on teaching, this award is thought of as the highest honor for any faculty member to receive. I was extremely humbled by the nomination I received and to be surprised by having my partner and my step-daughter in the audience to witness me receiving the award was incredibly special.
What are you working on right now?
In addition to a book-length manuscript on assisted dying, I have two projects that I’m especially pre-occupied with at the moment.
The first is about gratitude and debt. I suggest that people with disabilities face a previously unacknowledged form of inequality that requires addressing as a matter of justice. I argue that the disabled are recipients of a disproportionate amount of social debt – or debt originating from social interactions where one is perceived to assist another (Adam Cureton inspired me to think more about this idea with a paper of his titled “Offensive Beneficence”, that I commented on a few years ago at a workshop on philosophy and disability). I suggest that unlike traditional forms of debt where one owes what one consents to owe and what one takes, social debt operates differently. A troubling feature of social debt is that the extent to which one owes is not determined by the debtor, but by the debtee.
More specifically, I suggest that because social attitudes are such that people with disabilities are perceived to be unable to perform many day-to-day functions, when an able-bodied individual offers assistance, oftentimes without consent from a person with a disability, the extent to which she owes a debt of gratitude is directly related to the extent to which another feels owed gratitude.
People with disabilities are forced to either face an ever-increasing load of social debt and the undue hardship of being deeply indebted, or alternatively, to repay their debt, oftentimes in potentially humiliating or unjustified ways.
The second project focuses on disability and moral responsibility. I argue that the State can be held partially responsible for harm to its citizens that results from a wrongdoing by a person with a disability who has questionable capacity to be held morally accountable themselves. I suggest that the lack of adequate services and the under treatment of individuals with mental illness or cognitive impairments results in the State being morally responsible for harmful action resulting from an individual’s impairment or disability. I start from an extremely limited notion of moral responsibility and responsibility of the state, and attempt to demonstrate that even proponents of these restricted versions of responsibility should endorse my view.
What topic do you think is under explored in philosophy?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, I think the experience of disability is under explored. Problems within political philosophy and ethics are often in greater relief in people with disabilities so exploring disability and philosophy is more likely to yield more inclusive answers to questions of justice and ethics for not only, but principally, people with disabilities. Aside from this, I think the experience of disability is misunderstood, misrepresented, or sometimes just plainly ignored, within broader society. By promoting critical inquiry into the experiences of people with disabilities at the beginning stage of inquiry, where philosophers ask and answer questions, it is only bound to increase support for the disabled further down the line, when it reaches public policy.
When did you last sing to yourself, or to someone else?
A few days ago, I sang “Baby Shark”, while dancing, to my niece. I have since sang it over and over again, to myself.
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Dr. Sabrina D. MisirHiralall is an editor at the Blog of the APA who currently teaches philosophy, religion, and education courses solely online for Montclair State University, Three Rivers Community College, and St. John’s University.
