Renowned philosopher and former addict Owen Flanagan provides a powerful, far reaching examination of addiction. His is the first book to integrate the experience of addiction and the myriad social, cultural, psychological, and physiological factors that create it. Flanagan's holistic analysis also discusses the drawbacks of conventional theories of addiction and pressing questions relating to public policy, harm reduction, and recovery--offering a probing and empathetic view of what it is to be an addict.