Getting Hooked: Rationality and Addiction

by Jon Elster (Editor), Ole-Jørgen Skog (Editor)

The essays in this volume offer the most thorough and up-to-date discussion available of the relationship between addiction and rationality. This is the only book-length treatment of the subject and includes contributions from philosophers, psychiatrists, neurobiologists, sociologists, and economists. The volume offers an up-to-date exposition of the neurophysiology of addiction, a critical examination of the Becker theory of rational addiction, an argument for a "visceral theory of addiction," a discussion of compulsive gambling as a form of addiction, several discussions of George Ainslie's theory of hyperbolic discounting, analyses of social causes and policy implications, and an investigation of the problem of relapse.

Contents:
Addiction and social interaction / Karl Ove Moene --
Addiction, weakness of the will, and relapse / Olav Gjelsvik --
The dangers of willpower / George Ainslie --
The neurobiology of chemical addiction / Eliot L. Gardner and James David --
To legalize or not to legalize: is that the question? / Helge Waal --
Rationality, irrationality, and addiction --
notes on Becker's and Murphy's theory of addiction / Ole-Jørgen Skog --
Gambling and addiction / Jon Elster --
A visceral account of addiction / George Loewenstein --
Epilogue: rationally coping with lapses from rationality / Thomas Schelling.

Genres: Essays

300 pages, Paperback

First published March 13, 1999

About the author

Jon Elster ، born 22 February 1940, Oslo) is a Norwegian social and political theorist who has authored works in the philosophy of social science and rational choice theory. He is also a notable proponent of analytical Marxism, and a critic of neoclassical economics and public choice theory, largely on behavioral and psychological grounds.

In 2016, he was awarded the 22nd Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science for his contributions to political science.