Addiction, Disease and Choice

Time and place: Monday 2. June - Tuesday 3. June 2014 University of Oslo, Aud. 2, Georg Sverdrups house                 

Is addiction a disease or a choice? Normative thinking about addiction has traditionally been divided between, on the one hand, a medical model which sees addiction as a disease characterized by compulsive and relapsing drug use over which the addict has little or no control and, on the other, a moral model which sees addiction as a choice characterized by voluntary behaviour under the control of the addict. This workshop explores the justification and normative implications of these different models from perspectives ranging from psychology, medicine, philosophy and economics.

   

Programme, Monday 2. June 2014:

 

9.25. Opening by Olav Gjelsvik (CSMN).

 

9.30-10.45 Robert Kurzban (University of Pennsylvania, Department of Psychology): “Why Everyone (else) is a hypocrite”.

 

10.45-11.00 Coffee.

 

11.00-12.15 Edmund Henden (Oslo and Akershus University College, Centre for the Study of Professions and University of Oslo, CSMN): “Addiction, Bias and Autonomy”.  

 

12.15-13.15 Lunch.

 

13.15-14.30 Justyna Klingemann (University of Warsaw, Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology): “The Congruence between lay and professional concepts of alcohol addiction”.

 

14.30-14.45 Coffee

 

14.45- 16.00 Carl Hart (Columbia University, Psychology Dept. & Psychiatry): “Ask the wrong question, get the wrong answer”. 

   

Programme, Tuesday 3. June 2014:

 

10.00-11.15 Louis Charland  (University of Western Ontario, Departments of Philosophy, Psychiatry and Faculty of Health Sciences): “Loss of Controll and Disease in Addiction: Five Fallacies”.

 

11.20-12.35 Jørgen Bramnes (University of Oslo, Norwegian Centre for Addiction Research): “What is the neurobiological knowledge of addiction, and what has this knowledge contributed to understanding the phenomenon?”

 

12.35-13.30 Lunch.

 

13.30-14.45 Hanna Pickard (Oxford Centre for Neuroethics) and Serge Ahmed  (Universite De Bordeaux, CNRS): “Addiction, Choice, Foresight”.

 

14.45-15.00 Coffee

 

15.00- 16.15 Peter Railton (University of Michigan, Department of Philosophy): “Two kinds of failure to learn in desire”.

    Registration:   Participation is free, but spaces are limited, so please register by sending an e-mail to Frøydis Gammelsæter at  [email protected]
  The workshop is part of an ongoing research project on Addiction, Autonomy and Mental Disorder funded by the Norwegian Research Council and the University of Oslo.   http://www.hf.uio.no/csmn/english/research/projects/personal-autonomy/

More information about the workshop can be found here: