Abstract

The target of Hanna Pickard's very erudite and thought-provoking article is compulsion. She argues that “addiction is not a form of compulsion” and that “addictive desires are not irresistible” (Pickard 2012, 40). However, I fear that compulsion as she presents it is ultimately a metaphysical straw figure, trapped in a false metaphysical dichotomy. What is lacking is a proper attention to specific individual clinical cases, examined over time. At the same time, Pickard's discussion is extremely important because of the manner in which it highlights both the merits and the perils of philosophical inquiry into the nature of addiction...