Autism, Down syndrome, and other such labels assume that 'intellectual disability' is a permanent aspect of human nature. C.F. Goodey demonstrates that intellectual disability and even intelligence are instead historically contingent creations, which are rooted in early modern cultural and religious matrices and corresponding forms of social organisation, and which have subsequently undergone continuous change. This paradigm-shifting book is also an urgent and compassionate appeal for us to consider, through the prism of history, how the apparent certainties of modern biology, medicine and psychology came to question the ethical status of some of us.

C.F. Goodey has researched and published on the history of 'intellectual disability', including the ethical and social implications of the concept, for more than 20 years. His articles have appeared in a number of scholarly journals, including History of Science, Medical History, History of the Human Sciences, Political Theory and Ancient Philosophy. He formerly held teaching and research posts at Ruskin College, Oxford, the Open University and the University of London Institute of Education, and is currently an independent consultant working for national and local government services on learning disability in the UK.

Contents: Introduction; Part 1 Problematical Intellects in Ancient Greece: Ancient philosophy and the 'worst disability'; Aristotle and the slave's intellect. Part 2 Intelligence and Disability: Socio-Economic Structures: The speed of intelligence: fast, slow and mean; Quick wit and the ingenious gentleman. Part 3 Intelligence and Disability: Status and Power: In-group and out-group: the place of intelligence in anthropology; Honour, grace and intelligence: the historical interplay; 'Souls drowned in a lump of flesh': the excluded. Part 4 Intelligence, Disability and Honour: Virtue, blood, wit: from lineage to learning; 'Dead in the very midst of life': the dishonourable and the idiotic. Part 5 Intelligence, Disability and Grace: From pilgrim's progress to developmental psychology; The science of damnation: from reprobate to idiot. Part 6 Fools and Their Medical Histories: The long historical context of cognitive genetics; The brain of a fool; A first diagnosis? The problem with pioneers. Part 7 Psychology, Biology and the Ethics of Exceptionalism: Philosophy, the devil and 'special people'; The wrong child: changelings and the bereavement analogy; Testing the rule of human nature: classification and abnormality. Part 8 John Locke and his Successors: the historical contingency of disability; Works cited; Index.