RATIONALITY AND HUMAN DISCRIMINATION

RATIONALITY AND HUMAN DISCRIMINATION

Stella Bassey Esirah

It is a famous adage that “All men make mistakes.” So, it is important to treat a human being, not as a god but, simply as a human being that is capable of mistakes. If so, then when a person makes mistakes he could be tolerated and corrected rather than condemned. Since all men are capable of mistakes, then mistakes must therefore be tolerable hence pardonable. Understanding the human person as a being capable of mistakes would make it possible to accept people the way they are meant to be instead of discriminating them based on natural frailty. However, the person whose mistake becomes part of his/her identity needs rehabilitation and not condemnation. He/she could be corrected or rehabilitated by trying or attempting different possible kinds of social rehabilitation irrespective of the case at issue. The only difficulty here will be in the deciphering what form of social rehabilitation is needed. Thus, Capital punishment could be a correction only from the Divine whereas it is never justifiable as the verdict of any penal system on human beings. The Divine is the author of life and can restore whatever life it destroys whereas; no human being can restore human life once it is destroyed. Consequently, no human being should directly or indirectly be involved in the process for the destruction of human life. The mistakes which one human person makes can also be made by another and possibly by all if they are put in the same condition of acting. All human efforts should therefore seek a possible means of correcting errors and reforming the agents of transgression. The fact is that, if one in error is not to be discriminated; then discrimination is especially intolerable. The Universal Declaration of Human Right warns against human discrimination of any kind, because all men have equal rights, dignity and nature especially, when the discriminated individual member of the human race is blameless against the issue taken for the basis of that discrimination. There is no justification for human discrimination on the basis of gender, race, color, tribe, tongue, religion or culture. 

There is neither inequality in human nature nor are there unequal human persons. Human nature is fundamentally equal since there is only one human nature in all human beings. A thing cannot be greater than, or superior to itself; the same thing is always equal to itself. Applying this model of formal mathematics to human nature becomes an intuitive knowledge that human nature, which is always one and the same, is always equal to itself. There is nothing like one human nature less or greater than another human nature, since there is only one human nature in every human person. It does not matter who possesses it. Of course, we do not suppose that an animal would possess a human nature. It must be a human person who possesses human nature whether the person is a male or female. The point at issue is that human nature is essentially equal thus; there should be no basis for discrimination on any disparateness of human nature. This equality of human nature is the basis of equal right, dignity and freedom of all human persons. As such, it will be an offence against human equality. An individual uniqueness is only to afford to each person the capacity to supply a particular kind of service better than other kinds of services and better than others; so that, when the concept of division of labor is employed, certain factors must be taken into consideration. This is not discrimination, but a placement of things in the order of their uniqueness, and it is only an act of respect to the dignity of the human person whose nature must be respected rather than exploited to give people their due. Human persons, in their individual uniqueness, play complementary roles in society.

Indiscriminately, they must be allowed to do that which they will do more efficiently and are more proficient for towards the good of society. What this means is that complementarities in society cannot be gainsaid, as it cannot be underestimated. We have to consider the diverse issues pertaining to human discrimination as to show that there is no basis for such a trend in society, hence to conclude that human discrimination is the only thing to be discriminated and not the human person. In other words, let us discriminate against discrimination rather than discriminate against any human person. First and foremost we would look at three arguments that are sufficient for us to discriminate against discrimination.

First, we want to argue that all members of the human community at large have roles they must play complementarily. No member of the human community is irrelevant at any point in time. This applies to debunking every basis for discrimination on class distinctions recognized in society especially in terms of age, experience, endowment, achievements, opportunities, and benefits. Secondly, due to situational discrepancy in the way people rise in life from one level to another; individual persons lack parity in their motivations for vocations, consequent upon which they do not all perform the same jobs. Some are doing substantial jobs that require special skill and training, while others perform menial jobs that do not require the same kind of skill and training. This accounts for the reason we have different kinds of careers. So, on career privileges, those who provide are not less humans than those who manage the resources needed. They both perform duties that are proper to and for their privileges as well as being relevant to the growth of the community they find themselves. So, there is nothing like a justifiable human discrimination that should be based on economic or social status. Thirdly, some jobs are best done by the females and others by males. But the society has equal need and value for the services of both men and women. Thus, one cannot justifiably discriminate the other on the basis of gender and job opportunities that respect gender uniqueness. The society recognizes all genders as unique absolutely, and on that platform of uniqueness conferred by nature on all persons. All persons cannot but feature where their nature requires of them a certain kind of task as the contribution they owe to the growth of society. Every unique person is important and there cannot be any justifiable human discrimination based on personal or individual uniqueness.

The general analysis of the subject of human discrimination here thus elucidates how each and every human person has a contribution to make to the society. It is worthy of note that the person is always either a male or a female. No definition of the human person will afford to ignore the relevance of gender issues to creating an understanding of human nature. In the society we find human persons of disparate gender and affinity. The males have similar features that make them male as do the females. And this forms a basis for arguing that their natures are unique but uniqueness is never reducible to inequality. Hence, where gender disparities are used to form a basis for discrimination it becomes questionable whether the affinities for asserting uniqueness are mistaken for equality. Since, in the society today, gender discrimination has been the most common form of human discrimination, it is to be taken that the society of such discrimination is guilty of mistaking uniqueness for inequality. Every person partaking in the larger social interest requires equal quality of service which society demands of others, hence, that the service done by one, does not make the one who does it more or less favored naturally in society than the other. In other words, there is a collective need of the other in society. And everyone who lives in society expresses in his/her nature that insatiability in what his/her own uniqueness provides. Thus, there is always the need for complementarily since there is still a need for what others produce, which merely one never had the opportunity to provide for oneself. No gender can sufficiently perform all roles in society that is necessary for the society, hence the consequent need to promote the idea of gender equality to rival gender discrimination. 

Sr. Dr. Stella Bassey Esirah HHCJ is a lecturer and Head of Department of Philosophy at St. Joseph Catholic Major Seminary, Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State (esirah@hotmail.com).