The Faces of Intellectual Disability challenges current thinking about cognitive impairment in order to come to terms with what it means to treat people with intellectual disabilities in an ethical manner. As she embraces the task of reassessing philosophical views of intellectual disability, Licia Carlson shows how we can affirm the dignity and worth of intellectually disabled people by dropping comparisons to nonhuman animals and confronting fears and discomforts about mental impairment. Carlson presents a complex history of ideas and notions about cognitive impairment, the treatment of intellectually disabled people, and social and cultural reactions to them. Sensitive and clearly argued, this book offers significant new thinking on recent trends in disability studies and philosophy.