Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 5

Philosophy - Essay Example But in reality what is a person, it is one subject on which many theologians, philosopher and psychiatrist pondered over a long period of time. Since we are discussing about an intangible identity, one cannot establish the truth, even when one is definite about its true nature. We could say that person is an identity, with certain capabilities and abilities to perform sanely at a given situation or circumstances. Some people are reluctant to accept a mentally defective human being as a person due to their deficiencies in intellectual power. According to (Dennett,14)â€Å"For instance, infant human beings, mentally defective human beings, and human beings declared insane by licensed psychiatrists are denied personhood, or at any rate crucial elements of personhood† Now just because a human being have a defective mental system, he should not be losing his right to be called as a person. So are we a person just because we possess a well defined intellectual workability. It really seems absurd, for a human being with a soul and mind to be disregarded just because he cannot work rationally and logically .Then it would make also sense to call these mentally defective and immature people as animal. As we know animals does not have rational thinking, and same is the case with infants and mentally ill people. So why is it that we do not address these mentally immature and insane people as animals? Here we can explain that being a person is more about the genetic structure we possess. Otherwise the mentally ill person or animals are not guided by intellect a d they act abnormal in our view. We can understand here that the genetic make up or the body structure and his surviving pattern make him a person. People say that we are designated as a person because we have certain capabilities and abilities which we use in support with our intellect and logic. Being rational means, we act according to our reasoning or as per the guidance of our intelligence .A being can be a person and still cannot be rational, just because he is weak in his brain or working ability. But a rational being cannot exist as a non person, because to be rational he very much has to be a person. It is seen that a mentally insane person is not given the same accountability and responsibility as a normal person .He is not considered as a whole personality ,as he lacks the ability to sort out things with his intellect .So it could be understood that intelligence and rational behavior offers a human being a personhood. Another aspect to being a person is the awareness and consciousness which a person experience in his personhood. The awareness or the consciousness is what is lacking in mentally ill or infants which make them less of a person. The consciousness is the center to the self and a personality and a human being which is not connected to his consciousness can be regarded less of a person. Most of the people nowadays know that we have evolved from the species called hom osapiens. A person is a being with logic, morality and ethical behavior which is obviously lacking in a homosapiens .As per(Rosenberg, 11)â€Å" To regard some being as a person, in shorter, is to grant to that being the sort of respect and treatment due persons, to acknowledge it as having to certain ethical or having standard â€Å".We as persons are more evolved than homosapien species. For example, if we see a human raised in a forest from his childhood, we might hesitate call him a person but might address him as