ABSTRACT

The problem of addiction is one of the major challenges and controversies confronting medicine and society. It also poses important and complex philosophical and scientific problems. What is addiction? Why does it occur? And how should we respond to it, as individuals and as a society?

The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Science of Addiction is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, problems and debates in this exciting subject. It spans several disciplines and is the first collection of its kind. Organised into three clear parts, forty-five chapters by a team of international contributors examine key areas, including:

  • the meaning of addiction to individuals
  • conceptions of addiction
  • varieties and taxonomies of addiction
  • methods and models of addiction
  • evolution and addiction
  • history, sociology and anthropology
  • population distribution and epidemiology
  • developmental processes
  • vulnerabilities and resilience
  • psychological and neural mechanisms
  • prevention, treatment and spontaneous recovery
  • public health and the ethics of care
  • social justice, law and policy.

Essential reading for students and researchers in addiction research and in philosophy, particularly philosophy of mind and psychology and ethics, The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy and Science of Addiction will also be of great interest to those in related fields, such as medicine, mental health, social work, and social policy.

chapter |3 pages

Introduction

part I|199 pages

What is addiction?

section A|113 pages

Conceptions of addiction

chapter 1|14 pages

The Puzzle of Addiction

chapter 2|11 pages

Deriving Addiction

An analysis based on three elementary features of making choices

chapter 3|11 pages

The Picoeconomics of Addiction

chapter 5|9 pages

Addiction

The belief oscillation hypothesis

chapter 7|13 pages

Identity and Addiction

chapter 8|12 pages

The Harmful Dysfunction Analysis of Addiction

Normal brains and abnormal states of mind

section B|83 pages

Varieties, taxonomies, and models of addiction

chapter 10|9 pages

Defining Addiction

A pragmatic perspective

chapter 12|15 pages

Reconsidering Addiction as a Syndrome

One disorder with multiple expressions

chapter 16|12 pages

“A Walk on the Wild Side” of Addiction

The history and significance of animal models

part II|206 pages

Explaining addiction

section A|43 pages

Anthropological, historical, and socio-psychological perspectives

chapter 17|11 pages

Power and Addiction

chapter 18|9 pages

Sociology of Addiction

chapter 20|10 pages

Multiple Commitments

Heterogeneous histories of neuroscientific addiction research

section B|61 pages

Developmental processes, vulnerabilities, and resilience

chapter 21|22 pages

The Epidemiological Approach

An overview of methods and models

chapter 23|13 pages

Choice Impulsivity

A drug-modifiable personality trait

chapter 24|13 pages

Stress and Addiction

section c|98 pages

Psychological and neural mechanisms

chapter 32|10 pages

Brain Mechanisms and the Disease Model of Addiction

Is it the whole story of the addicted self? A philosophical-skeptical perspective

part III|153 pages

Consequences, responses, and the meaning of addiction

section A|39 pages

Listening and relating to addicts

chapter 33|16 pages

The Outcasts Project

Humanizing heroin users through documentary photography and photo-elicitation

chapter 34|9 pages

Our Stories, Our Knowledge

The importance of addicts’ epistemic authority in treatment

section B|46 pages

Prevention, treatment, and spontaneous recovery

section c|65 pages

Ethics, law, and policy

chapter 40|10 pages

Addiction

A structural problem of modern global society

chapter 42|13 pages

Drug Legalization and Public Health

General issues, and the case of cannabis

chapter 44|14 pages

Criminal Law and Addiction

chapter 45|10 pages

Addiction and Mandatory Treatment