1 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: /r/philosophy Open Discussion Thread | January 27, 2025
Also, there are people who have the willpower to force themselves off of drug addiction despite this rewarding mechanism. The "cold turkey" phenomenon also makes the hedonistic approach suspect, as it then flexes itself to meet the conditions.
We must assume that the addiction, reward, and longing to quit are all done from the same reward center if that theory is correct.
But then, why would someone have a longing to quit, or be able to quit cold turkey if we are only maximizing pleasure to avoid pain?
Comment by Choice-Box1279 at 01/02/2025 at 18:39 UTC
0 upvotes, 2 direct replies
There are two categories of addicts, those who want to quit and those who don't.
Those who don't are at a stage where they see the pleasure as outweighing the pain caused by being an addict.
Those who want to quit have conceived of an alternative they think will be more rewarding than being an addict.
The process of quitting when voluntary involves a fight between the motivators for the perceived future reward gained by quitting and the motivators associated with going back (easy reward, avoidance of withdrawal pains)
We definitely have many reward centers though, the term pleasure I refer to means the motivators based on these systems.