C.W. Maris

The Disasters of War: American Repression versus Dutch Tolerance in Drug Policy

This article discusses Dutch pragmatism with regard to drug policy, an approach that deviates sharply from the worldwide war on drugs most energetically promoted by the United States. The author focuses on the recent Dutch Memorandum on Drugs, a document that takes prevention and diminution of harm as the policys central aims. The author analyzes both Dutch drug policy and the international drug war in terms of the harm principle developed by philosopher John Stuart Mill, concluding that the Dutch policy is preferable in that it produces fewer harms. It is argued that, in theory, decriminalization of drugs and the implementation of regulations comparable to those for alcohol should provide a better balance between freedom and harm reduction than the current war on drugs approach allows. In practice, however, the latter solution could only work within the context of a worldwide adoption of the liberal approach.

Antiquity and the Middle Ages

Chapter 2 traces the developments in philosophy from the pre-Socratic thinkers to the end of the Middle Ages, that is, from ca. 600 BC to ca. 1500 AD. It presents the philosophies of the pre-Socratics, the Sophists, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoa, Thomas Aquinas, William of Ockham and Marsilius of Padua. In doing so, it sets out the worldview of the classical period and the Middle Ages, which presupposed a coherent unity and purpose in the universe. In the Greek-Roman period and in the Middle Ages people took for granted that behind the phenomenal world within which man leads his everyday life, a higher spiritual order is concealed. This spiritual world gives unity and meaning to empirical reality. Since the empirical world is viewed as an imperfect materialisation of the spiritual world, the latter serves as the standard by which to perfect the former. According to this idealistic worldview, the good is thus objectively present in (the higher sphere of) nature. This implies a broad, perfectionist concept of ethics, which commands man to align himself fully with an ideal of perfection. (Natural) Law, in this view, serves to enforce compliance with this perfectionist morality, and thus to ensure that man lives in accordance with his essential nature. Such a perfectionist ethics does not make provision for any individual freedom to arrange one’s life according to one’s own convictions. How one must live as man is after all objectively determined in nature, and is not left to individual choice. In this conception there is, therefore, no place for liberal freedom rights. The chapter furthermore shows the development towards the end of the Middle Ages which prepared the ground for the Modern Age, characterised by increasing fragmentation, individualisation and relativisation.

Coda: The End of Tolerance?

This chapter takes stock of Tolerance: Experiments with Freedom in the Netherlands. According to pessimists the end of tolerance is imminent throughout the Western world. Indeed, populist politicians achieve great electoral successes with destructive xenophobic and isolationist political programs. Present-day Dutch intolerance is a two-headed monster: large immigrant communities endorse intolerant traditions; many natives react with increasing intolerance to immigrants. Both tendencies reinforce each other, which raises the paradox of tolerance. According to Rawls, justice requires the tolerant to tolerate the intolerant ‘as long as liberty itself and their own freedom is not in danger’. The decisive question is, then, whether toleration is an endangered institution.

Can We Learn from History? A Letter to Mr. John Locke, Philosopher

This chapter outlines the history of freedom and toleration. It pays particular attention to the Dutch Golden Age that exemplified tolerance, a trendsetting pragmatic response to the problems of modern plural society. It addresses John Locke, who composed his A Letter Concerning Toleration during his stay as a political refugee in Amsterdam in the 1680s. Inspired by his Dutch intellectual friends, Locke expounded the basic ideas of a liberal constitution, albeit not as yet in a perfect way. Spinoza and other representatives of the ‘Radical Enlightenment’ were more coherent in their elaborations of the liberal principles of liberty and equality.

Sex, Morality and Law

This chapter focuses on sexual legal morality and sexual ethics. In the erotic domain, Dutch practice provides an ideal testing ground for liberal theory. Since the Sexual Revolution of the 1960s, the Netherlands has been in the vanguard of sexual emancipation, providing a unique opportunity to observe the liberal model in action. The chapter analyses Dutch legal history in this field in the light of the current philosophical debate concerning the harm principle.

My Story: Ascertaining the Truth in Cases of Incest

This chapter discusses incest, a special case of sexual morality. The Netherlands belongs to the minority of European nations that have decriminalized incest between mature relatives. Dutch law only outlaws sex with minor relatives, in the same breath with prohibiting sex with non-relative dependent minors, such as pupils and minor servants. Dutch legal practice thus matches liberal political theory: it permits incestuous acts between consenting adults; incest with non-autonomous minors, even when voluntary, is prohibited on paternalistic grounds.

Close the Borders!: Dutch Intolerance and Freedom of Speech

This chapter discusses Dutch intolerance of immigrants in relation to the proper limits of free speech: should discriminatory speech be banned? The focus is on the trials involving the Dutch populist politician, Geert Wilders, who is an expert in Islam-bashing. Wilders presents his verbal violence as a matter of self-defence against Islam’s jihad, a holy war in pursuit of world dominion. Muslim immigrants would be trying to transform the Netherlands into ‘Netherarabia’. Wilders’ political program builds on Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations, a prophecy of a cultural clash between the Western and the Muslim worlds.

One of Us: On Human Identity and Freaky Justice

This chapter concerns marginalized groups, in particular human ‘freaks’ who used to make their living by exposing their abnormalities in circuses and at carnivals. Such ‘Very Special People’ stand out since they challenge human identity: a Bearded Lady challenges the distinction between male and female; a Living Skeleton challenges the distinction between life and death. Such extreme cases also cast a focus on central ethical issues. First, a question of individual autonomy: should these marginalized individuals be free to expose themselves in freak shows? This question is answered in the positive.

I Have No Regrets: Dutch Euthanasia

The Netherlands was the first country to legalize voluntary euthanasia. Dutch law forbids euthanasia by another person, with the exception of a medical doctor. The physician has to meet requirements of due care, such as: the patient has made a voluntary and well-considered request, and suffers unbearably without prospect of improvement.

Dutch Weed and Logic

In the 1970s the Netherlands took the global lead in a trend towards a liberal drug policy by decriminalizing the sale and consumption of small amounts of the ‘soft’ drugs marijuana and hashish. The aim was harm reduction. This tolerant policy sharply contrasts with the moralistic American ‘War on Drugs’. The Netherlands and the United States of America can be seen as unique social laboratories for a comparative analysis of the practical implications of a liberal as opposed to a moralistic drug policy. The Dutch way is to be preferred because it reduces the harm, both for drug users and for others.