NJ ACTS Special Populations Core 2023 Seminar Series

The Role of Confidence in the Hard Problem of Addiction

With S. Matthew Liao

Many people who have a substance use disorder sincerely want to give up their addiction or not relapse, but they often struggle to do so. Dr. Liao calls this the Hard Problem of addiction because the explanation for this problem seems difficult to find. He first argues that the disease model and certain versions of the choice model of addiction are inadequate for explaining the Hard Problem. He then proposes that paying closer attention to the confidence levels of those with addiction gives us a fuller explanation of the Hard Problem.

Dr. Liao is Arthur Zitrin Chair of Bioethics, Director of the Center for Bioethics, Professor of Global Public Health, and Affiliated Professor in the Department of Philosophy at New York University.  He is the author or editor of The Right to Be Loved (Oxford University Press); Moral Brains: The Neuroscience of Morality (Oxford University Press); The Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights (Oxford University Press); Current Controversies in Bioethics (Routledge), Ethics of Artificial Intelligence (Oxford University Press), and over 70 articles in philosophy and bioethics. He has given TED and TEDx talks in New York and CERN, Switzerland, and he has been featured in the New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, the BBC, Harper’s Magazine, Sydney Morning Herald, Scientific American and other media outlets.