Ethics

If a person chooses to drink alcohol in order to become more violent, should philosophers/society blame alcohol as "the evil substance," the drinker himself for not understanding the meaning of life, or society for not helping the person overcome alcohol consumption the first place?

Comments

Alcohol, not being sentient, can’t seriously be considered evil or blameworthy in the way many people (not including me) think some humans or other sentient beings can be. It is probably more fruitful to forget about blame and think instead in terms of causes and possible solutions. If the person drinks and succeeds in becoming more violent as a result, then alcohol is a cause. But attempting to deprive this individual of alcohol would probably not achieve much in the way of solving the problems. The immediate causes of the person’s choosing to drink would be his own mental states: his beliefs, desires, hopes, fears and so on. Some of the causes of those might be internal the individual: an imbalance of chemicals in the brain, or a lack of certain neural structures, perhaps. And some will lie in the individual’s social environment. A detailed case study would be required to get the full story, and to determine what, if anything, could be done to make matters better.

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