Thinking about Addiction: Hyperbolic Discounting and Responsible Agency. (Value Inquiry Book)

155 Pages·2009·1.81 MB·English

by  Craig Hanson

Thinking abouT addicTion
VIBS
Volume 209
Robert ginsberg
Founding Editor
Leonidas donskis
Executive Editor
Associate Editors
g. John M. abbarno Matti häyry
george allan Steven V. hicks
gerhold k. becker Richard T. hull
Raymond angelo belliotti Michael krausz
kenneth a. bryson Mark Letteri
c. Stephen byrum Vincent L. Luizzi
harvey cormier adrianne McEvoy
Robert A. Delfino Peter a. Redpath
Rem b. Edwards arleen L. F. Salles
Malcolm d. Evans John R. Shook
daniel b. gallagher Eddy Souffrant
andrew Fitz-gibbon Tuija Takala
Francesc Forn i argimon Emil Višňovský
William gay anne Waters
dane R. gordon James R. Watson
J. Everet green John R. Welch
heta aleksandra gylling Thomas Woods
a volume in
Social Philosophy
SP
andrew Fitz-gibbon, Editor
Thinking abouT addicTion
hyperbolic discounting and
Responsible agency

craig hanson
With a Chapter by
George Ainslie
amsterdam - new York, nY 2009
Cover photo: ©Morguefile.com
cover design: Studio Pollmann
The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of “iSo
9706:1994, information and documentation - Paper for documents -
Requirements for permanence”.
iSbn: 978-90-420-2662-9
E-book iSbn: 978-90-420-2663-6
© Editions Rodopi b.V., amsterdam - new York, nY 2009
Printed in the netherlands
Social Philosophy
(SP)
andrew Fitz-gibbon
Editor
another title in SP
Evgenia cherkasova,
Dostoevsky and Kant:
Dialogues on Ethics.
2009. VibS 206

CONTENTS

Editorial Foreword vii
ANDREW FITZ-GIBBON

Guest Foreword: Philosophy and Addiction ix
LAWRENCE ASHLEY

Acknowledgments xvii

O NE Philosophical Perspectives on Theories of Addiction 1

TWO Addiction from the Behavioral Economist’s Point of View 13

THREE Ainsliean Selves 31

FOUR Self-Deception 45

FIVE Toward the Rationality of Bundling 59

S IX Responsibility 75

S EVEN Responsibility in a Reductionist Model 95
GEORGE AINSLIE

WORKS CITED 115

ABOUT THE AUTHORS 121

INDEX 123

EDITORIAL FOREWORD

In 1998, the philosophy department at SUNY Cortland took the innovative
step to create a program focused on social philosophy. The key components
of the program are social and political philosophy, ethics, and applied philos-
ophy. In 2007, following the successful implementation of the program, the
department formed the Center for Ethics Peace and Social Justice to extend
the outreach of philosophy through publications, conferences, and a summer
ethics institute for faculty, and philosophical practice and activism.
As part of that outreach, we are delighted to co-sponsor a VIBS series in
social philosophy. Craig Hanson’s Thinking about Addiction: Hyperbolic
Discounting and Responsible Agency is the second in the series.
Hanson’s book is a creative, and at times controversial, exploration of
behavioral and economic models of addiction. It will be of interest to those
considering philosophical accounts of addiction and those who want to recon-
sider moral responsibility and agency.

Andrew Fitz-Gibbon
Associate Professor in Philosophy
Director, Center for Ethics, Peace and Social Justice
State University of New York College at Cortland
and
VIBS Social Philosophy Special Series Editor