Must Be Able To Communicate With A Community Of Persons (Essay Sample)

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Q1.
One must be able to communicate with and be connected with a community of persons.
I strongly disagree with John Locke that memory is the only thing required for one to be a person. In philosophy, human memory is defined as the ability of the individual mind to visualize process and retain information, both visual and perceived for subsequent application in his or her interaction with others. The major argument here is thus the fact that for any living creature to be considered human, it must use information stored within its memory for the sole purpose of interacting with others. A dog, which heavily depends on its strong sense of smell, can quickly remember of a path that led it to some food somewhere but cannot communicate the same to other dogs and thus fails to be a person. I therefore abide by Kafka’s school of thought for one to fully be a person, he or she must not only have thoughts and memory but must also be able to communicate with and be connected with a community of persons.
Proponents of science often argue that human beings have the most developed brain amongst all animals. A more unique ability of the human brain is the power of reason, the innate ability to make judgments and deductions from a pool of thoughts and ideas. Although disabilities and physical deformities often affect human beings, they are not reason enough to classify some people as incomplete persons. In reference to the arguments as presented by John Locke, I thus mean to reject the view that since a bug might have thoughts and memory, it can therefore be considered as an incomplete person. Gregor wasn’t alienated and isolated from his family due to his inability to express his thoughts alone, from the word go, he has assumed a physical body of a bug and there was no point he could be referred to as a person. He was therefore not an incomplete person but actually a bug. Besides the bug which is our center of focus in the context of this argument, there exist so many other animals that have thoughts, a memory and hence have different ways of expressing their thoughts. The line of differentiation between such animals and persons is thus not only their inability to communicate their thoughts to human beings but even from the word go, they are physically different. Hence such animals cannot be thought of as incomplete persons.
Thoughts in a nutshell refer to the mental creations formed by the brain which later transform into signals that control brain functionality. Basing on this argument therefore, almost all animals have a mind. Gregor Samsa too, in his state as a bug had a mind. Since thoughts emanate from a series of closely related perceived mental signals, each and every mind must possess a sort of memory that helps it continuously keep and retrieve the related signals that eventually generate thoughts. Once again, Gregory Samsa after being transformed into a bug had both a mind and memory and hence could generate mental thoughts. Basing on the precepts as put forward by John Locke, Gregory Samsa, who all this time assumed the state of a bug, had all aspects of humanity that could make him a full person. The fact that he was alienated and separated from his family thus emphasizes on the need to communicate as an important feature that completes personality, without which one does not qualify to fully be a person.
What is communication from a philosophical point of view? It is defined as the act of conveying specific intended meanings from one person or entity to another via signs that are mutually understood by both involved parties. The emphasis by philosophers is thus on the phrase “mutually understood signs”. John Locke can successfully argue that even bugs can communicate amongst themselves. On the other ...