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Thus it has acquired a connotation of desiring something that is bad for the self, as well as being unable to stop or avoid those desires. More recently it has become understood as liking for something of which society disapproves, and possibly having strong, recurrent desires that the person might at times wish he or she did not have. Initially it meant simply strong, usually passionate liking for something. The definition of addiction has continued to evolve over time.
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The term “free will” is a traditional usage but modern theorists generally do not postulate “will” as a distinct psychological entity, so it would be more precise to speak of free action (e.g., Mele, 2006, p. Shepherd (2012) showed that most people do not accept unconscious free will, so free will entails conscious control of action. It thus overlaps considerably with voluntariness. Thus, in simple terms, free will is the capacity to act in different ways in the same situation. One was “any intentional action performed on the basis of informed, rational deliberation by a sane person in the absence of compulsion and coercion.” The other invoked multiplicity of possible actions (i.e., the person could do two or more different things) in a given situation as constructed by all prior causes and events ( Haggard, Mele, O'Connor, & Vohs, 2010). Free actions, in turn, were defined in two ways. A recent and authoritative definition, based on an interdisciplinary committee working for a granting foundation, defined free will as the capability of performing free actions. With regard to addictive smoking, loss of voluntary control means that smokers cannot stop themselves from smoking.įree will is understood as the capability to act in different ways, subject to the person's own control and serving the person's reasons, goals, wishes, and choices. Loss of voluntary control means that the person is incapable of acting differently, either because of external forces or unconscious causes. Voluntary control means that the power to decide resides within the individual: the person is capable of making a conscious decision and implementing it. For present purposes, it can be understood as indicating that the person is capable of choosing between performing the action and not performing it. It encompasses choosing, initiating action on one's own, and accepting responsibility for one's chosen actions.
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It is related to the term agent, as in someone who acts. The core issue here is voluntary control of behavior: Do cigarette smokers lose voluntary control of their smoking insofar as they become addicted? Or do they remain responsible and in control, simply choosing to pursue the pleasures and satisfactions associated with smoking?Īgency is the capacity to initiate and control action. The difference between these positions has extensive implications for psychological and philosophical theory, for motivation, for drug treatment and intervention policies, for legal assignment of responsibility, and for government policy.ĭefinitions of key terms in this matter can be contentious. The opposing position is that smoking remains voluntary behavior that the person chooses to continue or not (e.g., Lewis, 2016). Volkow (2015) has even defined addiction as a disease of free will. A central dispute is whether regular smoking brings about a change in the person that impels him or her to continue smoking, in effect depriving the person of voluntary control over his or her behavior (at least in connection with smoking). It is now generally accepted that cigarette smoking is addictive. Tobacco addiction is probably the most common and problematic form of addiction worldwide, especially given its adverse health effects that include millions of premature deaths. This article examines the question of whether addiction impairs or even destroys free will, based on a review of the research literature on smoking cigarettes. Views of addiction have continued to evolve and change, driven variously by societal trends, medical opinion, and research findings.