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BOTH OF US NOW

Normative Principal of Autonomy in ‘Both Sides Now’ Episode

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According to IEP, (n.d), autonomy is defined as the existence of self-rule or self-

governance. It is the rights of a certain group of people to self- determine their fate on

governance issues. This concept was tailored during the times of Greek so that their city states

could self-govern themselves foe convenience reasons. On the other hand, MIT Notes, (2010),

posits that philosophers have espoused that the vital constituent of a person is the capacity to be

self-determining. According to Kant, the capacity to develop a rational approach to pursue a

fulfilling life and the mutual respect of other people’s autonomy is what a person must strive to

do. That is to say that an individual is free to decide what is best to his/her interest. There has

been a consensus among many people that autonomy is normatively essential. This consensus is

mirrored in the existence of an assent to the tenet that autonomy merits respect, this has led to the

thought that it is of key importance to cultivate autonomy. Although it has been shown that

autonomy is normatively important, it is not apparent why autonomy should be prioritized in

relation to other competing issues.

‘Both Sides Now’ is the fifth and last episode of House TV series which commences

with House waking up after having spent the night with Cuddy after which he sojourns to his

work in high spirits. Later, House and his colleagues are perplexed by Scott who has had a brain

operation to remedy his epilepsy. The brain operation leaves him with two distinctive

personalities where the left and the right hemisphere of the brain are functioning independent of

each other. This has left him with a condition referred to as alien hand syndrome; it makes him

loss the control of his actions and the control of his left hand. The case of Scott is manifested to

us the viewers and from the fact that he has no control over his faculties; he clearly has lost his

autonomy.
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This episode also explores the question of autonomy through the character House. Now

we see throughout the episode that House strives to suppress the manifestations of his irrational

side and his endearment to his rational side. He sees the irrational side of his as serving to

impend on his work and he strives to convince his team that he is the most rational human being

alive. His storyline in this episode once again brings up the topic of normative autonomy as no

matter how hard he tries to suppress the irrational side, it always manifests and we see how the

front he his using is ineffective.

In additional, the case of Amber’s hallucinations serves to enhance the separation of

House’s rational conscious mind from his intuitive and largely sub-conscious mind. And

although House seems like he has finally conquered his malady at the start of the episode, it’s

apparent that the malady has only increased despite the absence of Amber from his life. As the

patient and House embark on a discourse it becomes apparent that despite their combined efforts,

the intuition of the characters rather than rational analysis is the basis of their diagnoses. Here

again it is to be surmised that House and the patient have no control or jurisdiction with their

autonomy.

From this episode, it is determined that any person who prides himself as being

autonomous should be able to take control over his actions and the course of his thought. The

episode does an in-depth analysis of the perpetual struggle between the intuitive and the rational

and between what is apparent and what is it we want to believe. The importance of having

autonomy is stressed by House realizing that he can’t do with help; he then seeks the help of

Chase to weather his situation.

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The principle of autonomy is relevant through the course of this episode as we see all the

characters are striving to regain their autonomy. House, Dr. Cuddy and the patient are some of

the characters seeking to resolve their loss of autonomy. The episode shows that lack of

autonomy would serve to put the affected patient under a lot of distress and as such the faculty of

autonomy is invaluable to human beings. As the episode progresses, it becomes clear that for the

characters to look optimistically into the future, they must cast off their undesirable past and

strive to take jurisdiction of their autonomy.

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References

IEP, (n.d). Autonomy: Normative. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/aut-

norm/#:~:text=Autonomy%20is%20variously%20rendered%20as,rule%2C%20or%20sel

f%2Ddetermination.&text=Many%20also%20believe%20that%20developing,of%20livin

g%20a%20good%20life.

MIT Notes, (2010, June). Philosophical Ethics. Normative Principles.

https://www.cs.uct.ac.za/mit_notes/ethics/htmls/ch02s04.html