Addiction and Self-Control

Perspectives from Philosophy, Psychology, and Neuroscience

Edited by Neil Levy

Oxford Series in Neuroscience, Law, and Philosophy

Features close interaction between scientists and philosophers, many of whom are prominent in their fields.
Contributors are united in believing that understanding agency and failures of agency requires engagement with the best science.
Attempts to illuminate the mechanisms involved in addiction and thereby to understand to what degree and in what ways actions driven by addiction are controlled by the agent, express his or her will or values, and the extent to which addicts are responsible for what they do.
Contributors debate the best interpretation of the scientific evidence and how the scientific evidence bears upon, or can only be understand in the light of, philosophical theorizing about agency, control and responsibility.

Addiction and Self-Control

Perspectives from Philosophy, Psychology, and Neuroscience

Edited by Neil Levy

Oxford Series in Neuroscience, Law, and Philosophy

Description

This book brings together a set of papers, many which grow out of presentations at a conference in Oxford in 2009 on addiction and self-control, by a set of thinkers who are united in believing that understanding agency and failures of agency requires engagement with the best science. The papers it collects attempts to illuminate the mechanisms involved in addiction and thereby to understand to what degree and in what ways actions driven by addiction are controlled by the agent, express his or her will or values, and the extent to which addicts are responsible for what they do. Some of the papers focus on the neuropsychological mechanisms involved, especially on the role of the midbrain dopamine system. Others focus on features of the behavior and the extent to which we can infer psychological mechanisms from behavior. The authors debate the best interpretation of the scientific evidence and how the scientific evidence bears upon, or can only be understand in the light of, philosophical theorizing about agency, control and responsibility.

Addiction and Self-Control

Perspectives from Philosophy, Psychology, and Neuroscience

Edited by Neil Levy

Oxford Series in Neuroscience, Law, and Philosophy

Table of Contents
Contributors
1. Introduction: Addiction and Self-Control: Perspectives from Philosophy, Psychology and Neuroscience - Neil Levy
2. Money as MacGuffin: A Factor in Gambling and Other Process Addictions - George
Ainsle
3. The Picoeconomics of Gambling Addiction and Supporting Neural Mechanisms -
Don Ross
4. Team Reasoning, Framing and Self-Control: An Aristotelian Account - Natalie Gold
5. Phenomenal Authority: The Epistemic Authority of Alcoholics Anonymous - Owen
Flanagan
6. Varieties of Valuation in the Normal and Addicted Brain: Legal and Policy Implications
from a Neuroscience Perspective - Mark Walton and Nicholas Nasrallah
7. Are Addicts Responsible? - Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
8. Just Say No? Addiction and the Elements of Self-Control - Jeanette Kennett
9. Addiction in Context: Philosophical Lessons from a Personality Disorder Clinic - Hanna
Pickard and Steve Pearce
10. Are Addicts Akratic? Interpreting the Neuroscience of Reward - Gideon Yaffe
11. Addiction and Blameworthiness - Timothy Schroeder and Nomy Arpaly
12. Addiction Between Choice and Compulsion - Richard Holton and Kent Berridge
Index

Addiction and Self-Control

Perspectives from Philosophy, Psychology, and Neuroscience

Edited by Neil Levy

Oxford Series in Neuroscience, Law, and Philosophy

Author Information

Edited by Neil Levy, Deputy Director (Research), Oxford Centre for Neuroethics, Oxford University, UK

Deputy Director, Centre for Neuroethics, Oxford University

Contributors:

George Ainslie
Nomy Arpaly
Kent Berridge
Owen Flanagan
Natalie Gold
Richard Holton
Jeanette Kennett
Nicholas Nasralla
Steve Pearce
Hanna Pickard
Don Ross
Timothy Schroeder
Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
Mark Walton
Gideon Yaffe

Addiction and Self-Control

Perspectives from Philosophy, Psychology, and Neuroscience

Edited by Neil Levy

Oxford Series in Neuroscience, Law, and Philosophy

Reviews and Awards

"This book is full of ideas and propositions that make one think about what one thinks one knows and some of the paradoxes facing those working with or trying to change their addicted states." - Robert Hill, Drugs and Alcohol Today