A pluralistic account of degrees of control in addiction

Philosophical Studies 179 (1):197-221 (2021)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

While some form of loss of control is often assumed to be a common feature of the diverse manifestations of addiction, it is far from clear how loss of control should be understood. In this paper, I put forward a concept of decrease in control in addiction that aims to fill this gap and thus provide a general framework for thinking about addictive behavior. The development of this account involves two main steps. First, I present a view of degrees of control as the degree to which an agent would be responsive to potential or counterfactual sufficient reasons to do otherwise. Second, I sketch an account of the relevant control-undermining factors in addiction that is consonant with my proposed view of degrees of control. Being a high-level functional property, reasons-responsiveness is particularly well suited to frame an account of control-undermining factors that is doubly pluralistic: it encompasses the contribution of factors both internal and external to the agent, and it is consistent with various proposals as to the precise nature of the anomaly taking place in the psychology of addiction.

Other Versions

No versions found

Similar books and articles

Affective scaffolding in addiction.Zoey Lavallee - 2023 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy.
Two Problems About Moral Responsibility in The Context of Addiction.Federico Burdman - 2024 - European Journal of Analytic Philosophy 20 (1):87-111.
What is Addiction?Hanna Pickard & Walter Sinnott-Armstrong - 2013 - In K. W. M. Fulford, Martin Davies, Richard Gipps, George Graham, John Sadler, Giovanni Stanghellini & Tim Thornton (eds.), The Oxford handbook of philosophy and psychiatry. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Alienation and identification in addiction.Philip Gerrans - 2024 - Philosophical Psychology 37 (3):684-706.
A Liberal Account of Addiction.Bennett Foddy & Julian Savulescu - 2010 - Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology 17 (1):1-22.
Towards a dispositionalist (and unifying) account of addiction.Robert M. Kelly - 2023 - Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 44 (1):21-40.

Analytics

Added to PP
2021-03-14

Downloads
863 (#21,184)

6 months
194 (#20,056)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Federico Burdman
Universidad Alberto Hurtado

Citations of this work

Affordances and the Shape of Addiction.Zoey Lavallee & Lucy Osler - 2024 - Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology.
Affective scaffolding in addiction.Zoey Lavallee - 2023 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy.
Two Problems About Moral Responsibility in The Context of Addiction.Federico Burdman - 2024 - European Journal of Analytic Philosophy 20 (1):87-111.

View all 7 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

Responsibility and Control: A Theory of Moral Responsibility.John Martin Fischer & Mark Ravizza - 1998 - New York: Cambridge University Press. Edited by Mark Ravizza.
Responsibility and the Moral Sentiments.R. Jay Wallace - 1994 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Freedom of the will and the concept of a person.Harry G. Frankfurt - 1971 - Journal of Philosophy 68 (1):5-20.
Willing, Wanting, Waiting.Richard Holton - 2009 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press UK.

View all 39 references / Add more references