Moral Responsibility in the Context of Addiction

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter discusses the extent to which addicted people are morally responsible for harming others. It outlines three, semi-independent causes of addiction—dopamine dysregulation, detrimental environments, and detrimental self-conceptual content—and explores the extent to which these factors (alone or in combination) might mitigate addicted people’s responsibility. Dopamine dysregulation mitigates responsibility by causing abnormally large judgment shift and akratic motivation. Detrimental environments mitigate responsibility because they increase the costs of attempting to recover. Self-concepts of being an “addict” mitigate responsibility by making recovery directed actions feel alien and implausible. Interactions between these three factors increase the extent to which responsibility is mitigated. The chapter also considers and largely rejects arguments that addicted people should be held responsible for becoming addicted in the first place or for failing to recover.