Is prescription drug addiction a moral problem?
I believe it is. However, it is an opinion each of us need to decide for ourselves. I've included a few quotes by Philosophers that I found especially intriguing when forming this opinion for myself. "Free-will" being one of the most interesting, in relation to this very important issue.
Philosopher points
Aristotle - “Pleasure is a bi-product of your activity; because it can become addicting.
“Balance your life” - If we are addicted to something we are not balancing our lives.
Sophrorosyne – “Moderation” Meaning nothing in excess (A person who a line they cannot cross)
“Keeping the mean” - (my opinion) Not too little or not too much; In relation to prescription drug use. Prescription drug use can be helpful if one “keeps the mean”
Aquinas – “To resist all temptations; to deviate from it.”
Free will
René Descartes - “the ability to do or not do something” (Meditation IV), and even goes so far as to declare that “the will is by its nature so free that it can never be constrained”
David Hume, Defines liberty as “a power of acting or of not acting, according to the determination of the will.”
Descartes, in the midst of exploring the scope and influence of ‘the passions,’ declares that “the will is by its nature so free that it can never be constrained” (PWD, v.I, 343). And as we've seen, he believed that such freedom is present on every occasion when we make a conscious choice--even, he writes, “when a very evident reason moves us in one direction….”
John Paul Sartre- notoriously held that human beings have ‘absolute freedom’: “No limits to my freedom can be found except freedom itself, or, if you prefer, we are not free to cease being free.” (567) His views on freedom flowed from his radical conception of human beings as lacking any kind of positive nature. Instead, we are ‘non-beings’ whose being, moment to moment, is simply to choose:
John Stewart Mill (essay on Liberty) – “The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant....Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.”
In conclusion, I'd like to point out that life is what we make of it as individuals. However, how much of a responsibility do we have for our friends, family and neighbors? Where is that invincible line, and can it be crossed if it means we are protecting those addicted to prescription drugs? Do we as human beings have a ",Moral responsibility" to at some point inteject? Or is the individual responcible for their own being and their own actions no matter what the consequences, or harm it does to them individually?
I believe it is. However, it is an opinion each of us need to decide for ourselves. I've included a few quotes by Philosophers that I found especially intriguing when forming this opinion for myself. "Free-will" being one of the most interesting, in relation to this very important issue.
Philosopher points
Aristotle - “Pleasure is a bi-product of your activity; because it can become addicting.
“Balance your life” - If we are addicted to something we are not balancing our lives.
Sophrorosyne – “Moderation” Meaning nothing in excess (A person who a line they cannot cross)
“Keeping the mean” - (my opinion) Not too little or not too much; In relation to prescription drug use. Prescription drug use can be helpful if one “keeps the mean”
Aquinas – “To resist all temptations; to deviate from it.”
Free will
René Descartes - “the ability to do or not do something” (Meditation IV), and even goes so far as to declare that “the will is by its nature so free that it can never be constrained”
David Hume, Defines liberty as “a power of acting or of not acting, according to the determination of the will.”
Descartes, in the midst of exploring the scope and influence of ‘the passions,’ declares that “the will is by its nature so free that it can never be constrained” (PWD, v.I, 343). And as we've seen, he believed that such freedom is present on every occasion when we make a conscious choice--even, he writes, “when a very evident reason moves us in one direction….”
John Paul Sartre- notoriously held that human beings have ‘absolute freedom’: “No limits to my freedom can be found except freedom itself, or, if you prefer, we are not free to cease being free.” (567) His views on freedom flowed from his radical conception of human beings as lacking any kind of positive nature. Instead, we are ‘non-beings’ whose being, moment to moment, is simply to choose:
John Stewart Mill (essay on Liberty) – “The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant....Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.”
In conclusion, I'd like to point out that life is what we make of it as individuals. However, how much of a responsibility do we have for our friends, family and neighbors? Where is that invincible line, and can it be crossed if it means we are protecting those addicted to prescription drugs? Do we as human beings have a ",Moral responsibility" to at some point inteject? Or is the individual responcible for their own being and their own actions no matter what the consequences, or harm it does to them individually?