Sunday, October 28, 2012

No Mistakes in Nature - What Might J.J. Rousseau Say About Autism?

Let me preface this blog post by saying that I am the father of four sons, two which have been diagnosed as being "severely autistic" and are currently age 17 and 9.  I make this point to establish that I have quite a lot of knowledge concerning the behavior of certain types of autistic children and that in my discussion below I feel I have some qualifications that justify my making certain observations concerning such children and the philosophical rhetoric of Mr. Locke and Mr. Rousseau.

In Julie, J.J. Rousseau discusses ideas concerning child rearing.  One of the characters asserts that "all the faults which we impute to innate disposition are the effect of bad training" (29).  This character goes on to argue that "Every man has his special place in the ideal order of the universe; it is a question of finding out his place, not of changing the universe."  This is a wonderful myth to believe in, but it is a myth, sadly. Such Utopian idea's may well fit for a rhetorical debate involving a select group of children who have a functional range of "natural giftings" but what about the growing number of children who suffer from the wide variety of learning and social disabilities loosely labelled as Autism?

Severely autistic children are very dysfunctional in areas such as speech, behavior and social skills. Rational thinking in terms that Rousseau discusses are not part of such children's make-up. For the parents of a severely autistic child, simply getting them to use the toilet normally is often a huge victory. If the child does 'get it,' it is because of a 'breakthrough,' if not they may never understand it and no amount of reasoning with such a child, in my experience, will ever make them use the toilet correctly. Clearly, "innate disposition" has everything to do with how a severely autistic child behaves.

Later in the same text, the discussion revolves around the argument that given the proper training anyone can be molded into a model human, "we should check their passion, perfect their reason, correct their nature..." (30). Once again this is not a realistic tenant to apply to severely autistic children, unless the expectations are set appropriately. At 17 years of age, the severity of my son's autism is such that he has no comprehension that his vocalization, which consists of growls, wailing and grunts, is much too loud 90% of the time.  He has no control over his passions because he doesn't even understand what it means to have passions.  His mind doesn't seem to process the sensory foundations he laid down in ways that work to enable reason and rational thought.  Changing the nature of such an individual using standard methods of education is like trying to scale a glacier without climbing equipment. The tools in the box don't work, we need to adapt a broader selection of tools.

The other side of the argument Rousseau presents to the idea of a universal model is one where training is individual, based on the nature of the child. Here we see some hope. This is how best to approach severely autistic children, but again one must also set the goals appropriately.  As I've mentioned, I have two severely autistic sons, the younger is slowly learning to use speech, which is a miracle and involves a great breakthrough for him which occurred about 2 years ago.  Naturally, the hope is for a fully functional vocalization skill set in the future. But, sitting talking to him in an adult, rational way is not the path.  The training must be adapted to his nature and the pace at which he learns.  Focus must be on the right connections, and how he makes them.  A standard model, such as the one gentleman in the Rousseau text advocates, will never work.  The old models have to adapt, and the old expectations need to be changed to reflect the true realities of all children.

Any discussion concerning Nature versus Nurture, or as Rousseau phrases it, innate disposition versus education, must take into consideration that there are people born with a nature that is so far out of the "norm" that it is ridiculous to even discuss them in terms of a standard model for education. In Rousseau's day individuals such as severely autistic children were generally "put away," that is in an asylum. Their solution to the problem was to brush it aside. Fortunately, in our society this no longer happens. But it's still as important as ever to realize that not everyone born can benefit from the perfect model of education, nor can we hold up equal standards for everyone. Rousseau argues that we should not change the universe but find the ideal place for everyone within the parameters of the one we have established already. I argue, that this is simply not possible in the case of severely autistic individuals.  Does that mean these individuals should be given no chance to be part of society in any fashion? No! It means that we must push aside the limited and outdated philosophies to which we still cling and change the universe by broadening it. Because, only with the broadest possible horizon can we see the faint glimmer that shines in each and every individual no matter what their innate disposition.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Charlotte Lennox's Arabella & John Locke's Theories

In Charlotte Lennox's The Female Quixote her protagonist, Lady Arabella, has strange ideas about people's behavior and circumstances of life. This story is famous for being a feminine variant of Cervantes well known Don Quixote. The stories share the common problem that both Don and Arabella have filled their minds with books of fantastic stories believing them to be true.  Whereas in Don's story though, his mental derangement may have stemmed not only from the stories but some physical brain discorder, Arabella seems to suffer from no such problems, but rather is in the bloom of youth and very intelligent.  So why is she so deranged in her ideas about society?  Certainly there is more to the explanation than just a secluded childhood and a stack of outlandish French written romances, not necessarily according to the behavioral theories of 17th century philosopher John Locke.

In his book, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Locke spends a great deal of time explaining how he believes human memory and reasoning work. Many of Locke's theories about human learning and reasoning are drawn from philosophies dating back to Aristotle. Persian philosophers likened the state of a newborn's brain to that of an empty vessel with pure potential. It was from these and the writings of other influential thinkers that John Locke formulated the theories which he shared in his text. Like those before him, Locke asserts in his writings that the human brain begins life in a Tabula Rasa state, that is a blank sheet.  He further reasons that the only sources for human thought, memories and reasoning are accumulated through the senses, first building up a foundation of basic building blocks then gradually putting these blocks to more and more sophisticated uses. Only those things which the developing human being are exposed to via their senses can be drawn upon for more complex ideas and reasoning.  This is the critical premise, according to Locke, for comprehending human understanding. It is this key premise which appears to form the basis from which Lennox develops the behavior of Arabella in The Female Quixote.

If we apply what Locke says about memory and reasoning to Arabella's character, her eccentric behavior is quite easily justified.  Arabella, at the age of four, was removed from the care of the women who had been attending her in infancy and early childhood (Lennox 6).  Her father provided for her grammar school  education, ensuring she learned the basics.  He then provided her with higher education, in language and social skills, in order to give young Arabella the mental tools to be an intelligent, thinking woman. However, once the foundation was laid, the father seems to have stepped back and left her to her own devices.  He allowed the girl to continue her education via reading books from his amply supplied library.  It is easy to picture the type of books that the old Marquis valued.  Books of ancient learning, dry histories, writings of great thinkers, and tomes related to the running of a manorial property.  To a young girl such literature would be...BORING!  Then Arabella chanced to find a different sort of book, one which her dead mother had procured in order to more pleasantly pass the hours of the seclusion into which she had married.  Here at last the girl found grand tales of adventure and romance, reading in which her imagination could find pleasure and excitement.  Certainly other young women read similar tales, but the difference for Arabella is that the only input she had was these French Romances from which "she drew all Notions and Expectations" (7).  Upon the fertile mental foundations her father had ensured were laid down, the seeds of higher reasoning were laid, but the sources of these seeds were dubious indeed.  Having no real-life experiences, Lady Bella takes the romances as her mirror on society, they would become the basis upon which all of her more complex ideas would form.

Locke suggests that there are three actions possible through combination of mental materials, i.e. putting together ideas.  First are complex idea, second are the combining and comparing of two or more ideas, third is creation of general ideas though abstracting basic patterns from the person's pool of mental material. Given what Arabella had filled her mind with, it is no wonder that her complex ideas always lead her to suspect convoluted plots and sub-plots being played out by totally innocent, normal people.  Moreover, that she always believes the behavior of others must be in some way related to romantic love, either suffering by a spurned lover or valiant, heroic action by a lover proving themselves, since this is the only reference points to "real-life" that the girl has.  According Locke's theories, the only conclusions Arabella can possibly draw are those which she does, because those are the only mental building blocks she has available.  Is a person like Arabella trapped by their upbringing? Locke appears to suggest that they are.

Through her portrayal of Arabella in The Female Quixote, what does Lennox suggest about the importance of a balanced and varied social life to accompany a well guided education?  Does she agree with Locke? Do you agree with either or both of them?  Think about how kids are raised today on a steady diet of video games and TV?  How different is this from Arabella's upbringing.  If Locke's theories are really viable, then is not modern society creating its own Quixote's?

For a more detailed discussion of John Locke and the philosophy of his theories see http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/ from which much of the information here has been drawn.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Woman like spirits - Pope's Ideas in "The Rape of the Lock"

"For when the Fair [women] in all their pride expire / To their first Elements the Souls retire...." (Pope 1:57-8).

In this quote from "The Rape of the Lock" Alexander Pope suggests, that when women die they experience an afterlife in which they are transformed in to one of four types of spirits.  The spirit they transform into is determined by the personality of the woman in life.

The fiery ones "in Flame / Mount up, and take a Salamander's name" (59-60).

The women of "Soft yielding minds to Water glide away" (61).  These become Nymphs.

The women who are graver, as he calls them, "prudes", sink down "to a Gnome" (63).

And the "light Coquettes" become Sylphs who fly and play in the air (65-66).

What is Pope implying with these connections between women's dispositions and these four spirit types?  What will help in understanding this is an understanding of what each type of spirit mentioned in the poem represents in mythological terms.

Salamanders were believed to be creatures resistant to fire.  According to Bulfinch Mythology a salamander's skin was fire resistant. In fact traders from China once sold "salamander wool" clothing, which as it turns out was made using asbestos fibers. So whereas Pope seems to refer to Salamanders as creatures that were of fire, the Greek mythology seems to suggest that they were merely resistant to this element. But in later stories it seems that these animals are attributed with the ability to breathe fire, and sometimes were very similar to what we might call dragons. This fits more with what little Pope tells us about those spirits. Salamanders are also mentioned by 16th century alchemist Paracelsus who attributes them to the Roman fire god, Vulcan. One can imagine the fiery Thalestris, who brings the battle to the men so readily in Canto V, becoming a salamander when her life is through.

(for more see http://www.greekmythology.com/Books/Bulfinch/B_Chapter_36/b_chapter_36.html )

Nymphs were used to describe many sorts of spirits in ancient Greek mythology. These semi-divine beings had various stories. In the Trojan Cycle (of which the Iliad is a part) Paris was said to have first loved a mountain nymph and Achilles mother, Thetis, was a sea nymph, or Nereid who is described in the Iliad as being fairly powerful, even to the point of having saved Zeus' life at one time.

The way Pope describes nymphs in  "The Rape of the Lock" appears to be the a sea or river nymph (Naiads). Pope's nymphs appear to be easy going types who (no pun intended) "go with the flow." Yet, in mythology these spirits could have a wide variety of personalities, some were loving, some capricious, some pranksters, some even antagonistic to mankind entirely.  So it's difficult to see from where he derives his rather narrow connection with "soft yielding minds," water, and nymphs except that Paracelsus mentions them in his writing referring to them as "undines" which are a form of water spirit in oriental cultures as well.  Moreover, Pope calls Belinda a nymph through much of the poem, though she is attended by sylphs.  So what is going on here? Is he implying that Belinda is a woman of soft mind? Or is there a difference between the spirit nymphs and human woman nymph?

Gnomes are not mentioned in Greek mythology, at least not as such. They appear to be of a more modern origin, probably Celtic or Germanic. Gnomes are little people who live underground, often they appear to guard mines, and gold. In some ways they are like Leprechauns and perhaps stem from that origin as well. The Enyclopaedia Britannica online also discusses a 16th century connection between gnomes and alchemy (thanks once again to Paracelsus--starting to see a connection here?) which seems to be where Pope draws their personality from. They mix magical potions and use reagents which also can be tied to alchemy.  We can envision Clarissa as being the type of personality Pope would say was destined to be come a gnome.

(see http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/236317/gnome)

Sylphs are air spirits according to Pope, and are the spirit he spends the most time depicting.  In Greek mythology sylphs were also flying/air spirits and the muses may well have been considered sylphs.   The alchemist Paracelsus (see the information concerning Gnomes for more about him) said that sylphs were air-people.  They have most often been associated with angels, and are often said to be invisible. So here again Pope draws upon the famous (infamous) alchemist for his mythological backdrop. Paracelsus' spiritual creatures fit Pope's sylphs, though in most myths they are always portrayed as female, unlike the male Ariel in "The Rape of the Lock" which might be Pope's nod to Shakespeare.

Pope mysteriously ties sylphs to feminine innocence and chastity, though where he draws this from is not clear, aside from a vague connection between the heaven's and "goodness" (versus the underground and Hell/bad stuff).

By now the true probable source of Pope's four elemental spirits is apparent.  Pope must have read Paracelsus essays at one time, and decided to draw upon his ideas about elemental spirits for "The Rape of the Lock." Does this diminish the poem's "heroic epic" ties? Certainly it connects the poem with a broader base of history, that of the pseudo-science of alchemy which was widely practiced in England for a time. So while it does seem to make the poem less anchored in the classical heroic epic tradition, knowing that his spirits are drawn not from those myths but from a more contemporary source (Paracelsus having written about these spirits about 150 years before Pope appropriates them for his poem), Pope might have been making a more important statement.  Alchemy was doomed to decline and virtual extinction by The Enlightenment and the introduction of the modern scientific method.  Alchemy was steeped in magical trappings and in a sense mixed scientific notions with magical superstition.  The realism and practicality of Enlightenment thinking left no room for such nonsense as alchemy.  The fact that all of the underlying protection, rejection and mischief that occurs in "The Rape of the Lock" is attributed to these elemental spirits whose creation was primarily in the mind of a practitioner of magical-science (the very term is contradictory, the two words cancel each other out, leaving nothing) suggests what Pope is up to is very subtle indeed.  By drawing as he does upon these dubious spirits, Pope cleverly critiques British High
Society and the women of that society.  He suggests that all of their "airs," beauty and charms are merely concoctions. That what protects their vanity and innocence is falsely based, just like the precepts of alchemy.

Does this reading indicate that Pope's poem deserves the scorn and criticism that feminist readers give it? I'll leave that for you to decide. As a side note, Paracelsus, who professed to be Catholic, was forced to recant of many of his ideas or face severe punishment. His ideas about spirits ("demons" the Church called them) were not acceptable to the Church leadership.  Perhaps this is another reason for Pope to draw upon his ideas, another subtle jab at the upper class society and women, what do you think?

For a little more about Paracelsus check out this link:
http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/p/paracelsus'_natural_spirits.html