In Hume’s On the Immortality
of the Soul he talks of the different arguments for and against if our
bodies are only vessels for our souls or if its just our body and with that our
soul and mind deteriorates simultaneously as we age. He writes, “the weakness
of the body and that of the mind in infancy are exactly proportioned, their
vigor in manhood, their sympathetic disorder in sickness; their common gradual
decay in old age”.
To Hume that seems logical because that is the observable
evidence. We go from childhood inexperience to full understanding in adulthood to
then lose it all in our old age.
In John Locke’s Of
Identity and Diversity, he did write on the subject of how we can be the
same being when we don’t remember our childhoods in older age. They are linked
by the memories of middle age but the span of time has let us forget most of
the memories, so he questions if they are the same person.
Both men theorize that with the decay of the mind the person
is less than other people that have a more ample mind so to Hume they
are weaker in "soul", and if one to was be catatonic then they must lack soul
no matter the age. To Hume and Locke, the state of the mind is what determines
if you are of importance and if you truly are a being. In their definitions a man
has a sane and logical mind.
One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest raised questions as to what
makes a person. R.P. McMurphy is sent to
a mental institution where he is to be evaluated. He is an irrational person
but is sane and is very aware of what he is doing. Some patients are of the same mind but have
been convinced that they need to be treated. The institution has a strict regiment
ran by Nurse Ratched. The workers treat the patients as less throughout the
film; they do need help in functioning but they are not out of their mind, but quiet, disruptive, or lack in confidence. But
McMurphy challenges the establishment by bringing chaotic good and bad to the
patients but eventually is treating them as equals by the end of the film.
Director Miloš Forman brought up a valid point. We know that ways to heal a mentally
challenged person is to give them some form of normalcy, not strict routine. Some people are challenged because the people they are surrounded by telling them that. They have a right to equality and should not be considered less of a
human being just because their mind is not as avid and apparent as what is
expected, because we know now that not every person is the same when compared
to what is “normal”. At one point in the
film Nurse Ratched talks of how for an individual to heal, they must be among
others and that was essential. A patient responds by asking why being alone occasionally
would be a bad thing and that it could be beneficial to some patients and as
always Nurse Ratched ignored a reasonable question and proceeded in the day. This even touches on what we expect out of
children in elementary school. When we start learning the essentials of life
such as reading and writing we are compared to the other students progress.
Some students excel for whatever reason while others are just slower and when
that happens teachers start trying to figure out what the problem is. There may be a
problem, but then again maybe not. We are all different in how we learn and we shouldn’t
start diagnosing before we know something definitive; in elementary school or in adulthood.
This is all a leap from what Hume and Locke were talking
about but I saw the idea of treating people with respect to where they get the time or attention to heal/learn. With the writings of Hume and Locke telling me that a man has a
logical mind then what makes a person that is different to where maybe they
don’t exhibit normal characteristics of a functioning member of society but are
mentally sound and logical.
Here is a link that discusses the possible problems that can
occur when diagnosing children.
Here is also a link discussing problems working with
multiple individuals in a teaching setting.
