a liberal strongaccountstrong of addiction - neuroethics.pdfVIP

A Liberal Account of Addiction Bennett Foddy and Julian Savulescu Abstract: Philosophers and psychologists have been to some extent. But drug addiction is not just a attracted to two differing accounts of addictive motiva- problem of public health. It is a source of moral tion. In this paper, we investigate these two accounts and outrage, it is a crime in many places, and it is an challenge their mutual claim that addictions compromise entity against which governments feel they must a person’s self-control. First, we identify some incom- wage “war.” patibilities between this claim of reduced self-control and the available evidence from various disciplines. A We argue that the generally understood mean- critical assessment of the evidence weakens the empirical ing of the term “addiction” is scientifically and argument for reduced autonomy. Second, we identify philosophically flawed. The concept of “addic- sources of unwarranted normative bias in the popular tion” is built around a range of unsupported theories of addiction that introduce systematic errors in prejudices that severely restrict our understanding interpreting the evidence. By eliminating these errors, of drug use, of pleasure-oriented behavior, and we are able to generate a minimal, but correct account, of the ways in which we maintain control over of addiction that presumes addicts to be autonomous in their addictive behavior, absent further evidence to the those behaviors. Research from the biological and contrary. Finally, we explore some of the implications soc