Towards a dispositionalist (and unifying) account of addiction

AbstractAddiction theorists have often utilized the metaphor of the blind men and the elephant to illustrate the complex nature of addiction and the varied methodological approaches to studying it. A common purported upshot is skeptical in nature: due to these complexities, it is not possible to offer a unifying account of addiction. I think that this is a mistake. The elephant is real –there is athere there. Here, I defend a dispositionalist account of addiction asthe systematic disposition to fail to control one ’s desires to engage in certain types of behaviors. I explain this position, defend the inclusion of desires and impaired control, and flesh out the notion ofsystematicity central to my account. I then illustrate how my dispositionalist framework can unify the disparate and seemingly incompatible accounts of addiction (and their respective methodological approaches). I close with a brief plan to extend and implement my account.
Source: Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - Category: Medical Ethics Source Type: research