Anita Silvers (1 November 1940 – 14 March 2019)[1][2] was an American philosopher, focusing on medical ethics, bioethics, feminism, disability studies, philosophy of law, and social and political philosophy.[3] She "was a leading voice in the interpretation of the Americans With Disabilities Act, arguing that disability rights should be viewed the same as other civil rights and not as an accommodation or as a social safety net issue".[4]

Biography

As a child, Silvers contracted polio and spent a year in an iron lung, leaving her with partial quadriplegia.[5] She attended The Wheatley School, Old Westbury, NY and was in 1958 salutatorian of the new school’s first graduating class. Silvers received her B.A. in 1962 from Sarah Lawrence College, and her PhD in Philosophy in 1967 from Johns Hopkins University.[6]

Silvers was a professor in, and former chair of, the Department of Philosophy at San Francisco State University, having been on the faculty from 1967.[2] In 1980, she was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to serve on the National Council for the Humanities, the governing board of the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2009, she was awarded the Quinn Prize for her service to the profession from the American Philosophical Association (APA)[7] the first time this award was granted to a faculty member of a non-research-intensive university.[1] In 2013, she was awarded the Lebowitz Prize by the American Philosophical Association and The Phi Beta Kappa Society.[8] In 2017, she was awarded the California State University (CSU) Wang Family Excellence Award.[9]

Her 1988 book Disability. Difference. Discrimination: Perspectives on Justice in Bioethics and Public Policy (co-authored with David Wasserman and Mary Mahowald)[10] is widely cited in legal affairs.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Dr. Anita Silvers (1940-2019)". SFSU Philosophy Department. Retrieved March 14, 2019.
  2. 1 2 "In Memoriam: Anita Silvers - The American Philosophical Association". www.apaonline.org. Retrieved 2019-03-16.
  3. Weinberg, Justin (2019-03-14). "Anita Silvers (1940-2019)". Daily Nous. Retrieved 2019-03-16.
  4. Genzlinger, Neil (22 March 2019). "Anita Silvers, an Authority on Disability Rights, Dies at 78". The New York Times. Retrieved 2019-03-31.
  5. Genzlinger, Neil (March 22, 2019). "Anita Silvers, an Authority on Disability Rights, Dies at 78". The New York Times. NY, NY. Retrieved January 6, 2020.
  6. Francis, Leslie Pickering; Anita Silvers (2008). "No Disability Standpoint Here!: Law School Faculties and the Invisibility Problem". University of Pittsburgh Law Review. 69 (3): 499–508. doi:10.5195/LAWREVIEW.2008.104.
  7. "APA List of Quinn Prize winners".
  8. "Philosophy chair honored for academic contributions | SF State News".
  9. "2017 Wang Family Excellence Award".
  10. Silvers, Anita; Wasserman, David T.; Mahowald, Mary; Mahowald, Mary Briody (1998). Disability, Difference, Discrimination: Perspectives on Justice in Bioethics and Public Policy. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780847692231. Disability. Difference. Discrimination: Perspectives on Justice in Bioethics and Public Policy (1988).
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