The age old question of ethical ambiguity is something that humanity may never resolve. Conflicting morals and the ultimate question of “is what I’m doing right?” is one of the greatest human mysteries. Philosophers, psychiatrists and every individual on the planet must grapple with this moral confusion in an attempt to find unique solutions to everyday dilemmas. In Affleck’s drama Gone Baby Gone, two very notable philosophies collide head on, and the protagonist must choose between the two to find the solution that he feels is ‘right.’
In Affleck’s brilliantly rendered drama Gone Baby Gone, a young girl is abducted from her mother, in a blue collar area of Boston, Massachusetts. Patrick Kenzie and his girlfriend are private …show more content…

Especially for the detectives, they look to the environment as the root cause of crime in the Boston region. They committed the crime of child abduction because they honestly believed that the life she would lead with her mother would drive her to a repetition of Helene’s fate. They thought that through that environment, she would grow up to do drugs, and participate in illicit activities, eventually subjecting her future children to the same fate. They believed that through the change in circumstances in being brought up in Doyle’s home, the conditioning would alter her fate and push her towards a healthier life, ending the vicious cycle of blue collar poverty. Skinner believed that through conditioning, people became who they were. Based on this principle, Amanda would almost certainly grow up thinking that the pleasure extorted through substances and drugs outweigh their harm, and would have fallen down the same path as her mother.
Patrick on the other hand, despite his slip-up believes strongly that actions are intrinsically right or wrong, a follower of deontology. The most evident example of this in the film is his conversation with Remy following his partner’s death. Remy says, “you should be proud of yourself, most guys would have stayed outside.”
“I don’t know.”
“What don’t you know?”
….”Murder’s a sin.”
“Depends on who you do it to.”
“That’s not how it works. It is what it is.”
This conversation shows