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Lennart Nordenfelt
Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology, Volume 17, Number 1,
March 2010, pp. 27-30 (Article)
Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press
DOI: 10.1353/ppp.0.0271
On Concepts
and Theories of
Addiction
Lennart Nordenfelt
On Definitions of Terms
Versus Theories of Phenomena
I think that the reasoning provided by the authors of this article is highly interesting and clarifying. However, in my view there is one serious
weakness in their argument. This has to do with
the authors failure to clearly distinguish between
the meaning of the word addiction and a theory
of addiction as a phenomenon.
The authors say that they argue that the generally understood meaning of the term addiction is
Nordenfelt / Addiction 29
Note
1. I have elsewhere (2007) developed an actiontheoretic model for the understanding of such mental
illness as entails acting under compulsion.
References
Foddy, B., and J. Savulescu. 2010. A liberal account
of addiction. Philosophy, Psychiatry & Psychology
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Fulford, K. W. M. 1989. Moral theory and medical
practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nordenfelt, L. 1987/1995. On the nature of health.
Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company.
. 2000. Action, ability and health. Dordrecht:
Kluwer.
. 2007. Rationality and compulsion. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Prn, I. 1993. Health and adaptedness. Theoretical
Medicine 14:295304.