Last week in class we discussed the idea of pleasure being the sole aim or ambition of Utilitarianism. With that in mind we started discussing the concept of pleasure from drugs. It is no secret that people get pleasure from doing drugs. That is the purpose of using drugs, sometimes to alleviate pain but to gain some form of pleasure in doing so. Taking or doing drugs however has a tremendous side effect. Some drugs end up causing allot more pain to the user by way of addiction, depression, and others. The question now is, is the pain worth it? How would a utilitarian argue for or against the use of drugs?
I feel that a Utilitarian would argue that the amount of pain received would not be considered a bad thing because initially there was pleasure received. The pleasure is the sole goal regardless of the side effects. What are your thoughts on the topic and my opinion?
Remember that the Utilitarian calculus seeks to maximize total net utility (variously described as pleasure, happiness, etc.). Thus all the benefits of a course of action, minus its drawbacks, equal its moral worth.
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ReplyDeleteLike most things, doing drugs is better some things and way worse than others. However, as Professor Silliman wrote, the aim of utilitarian philosophy is to find a course of action yielding maximum pleasure not pleasure alone. Yes, drugs do occasionally offer some pleasure via hallucination, pain relief, utopia, etc. but often times drugs can lead to, as you pointed out, horrible bouts of depression, dependence, physical deterioration, consequences of withdrawal and death (obviously not in all cases). So, the question is an interesting one, but the interpretation is slightly misplaced in that pleasure is not the only goal to a utilitarian.
ReplyDeleteI think "drugs" is too broad of a term to generalize a reaction to. A large problem with addictive drugs is the profit gained (and where there is profit there is a reverberation of corruption or more moralistically problematic crimes (cartels, mafia, government corruption, environmental concerns of production) things that have more violent repercussions then non-productive choices or crimes against self. Imagine if drugs where decriminalized but it was illegal to profit from them? That wouldn't solve all of the complex issues involved but it could help towards preventing the exploitation of factors that drive people to self medicate.
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