Реферат: Drugs Legalization Essay Research Paper Should Drugs

actions are right or wrong in themselves, regardless of their consequence. An

easy way to simplify these definitions is to think about how these two thoughts

would apply to murder. A deontologist would believe that murder is wrong simply

because it is the taking of another?s life, that the intrinsic value of murder

is bad so thus ?murder is bad?. A consequentialist on the other hand would

look deeper at the motive and consequence of the murder, then form an opinion

from there. Looking past the intrinsic value of it, what if the one person that

was murdered, was killed because he had a bomb that was going to kill 300

people? If believing in this channel of thought, one might conclude that this

one sacrifice of life saved 300 others, thus the overall outcome is good, so the

action was right. any classical as well as contemporary philosophers maintain

opinions and ideals that can be classified as either consequentialist or

deontological. Classical philosophers such as John Stuart Mill and John Milton,

along with more modern writers like Milton Friedman and Ethan A. Nadelmann are

all examples of consequentialist thinkers. On the deontological side of the coin

reside such well-known purveyors of classical thought as Aristotle and Edmund

Burke, along with contemporaries like William J. Bennett and James Q. Wilson.

The two main ideas of thought held by the two divisions of these gentlemen have

a great deal to do with their positions on the legalization of drugs. It is

important to keep in mind that while the opinions of Friedman or Bennett, for

example, are known because of their writings and expression of these opinions,

we are only assuming at this point what an older philosopher, like Aristotle for

example, would think about the controversy. The deontologist way of thought

would conclude that the use of illegal substances is a bad thing and should be

banned from usage by authority. Aristotle for example believed that the job of

government was to make people virtuous and good. A consequentialist, on the

other hand, would not shun the drug use itself as bad, rather look past the use

of the drug and place their opinion on the outcome of the usage of the drug. The

consequentialist way of thought, coupled with Mill?s idea of the ?Harm