Willing, Unwilling, and Binding Addiction: How Self-manipulation can Set You Free 15 C H A P T E R TWO Willing, Unwilling, and Binding Addiction: How Self-manipulation Can Set You Free Audrey L. Anton Since the advent of Harry Frankfurt’s notion of the willing addict, philosophers have reconsidered our notions of control and volition in free action. In this paper, I consider conditions for free action in light of an additional addict: the willingly dry addict. The willingly dry addict has a history of unwilling addiction but has her addiction under control. Since this addict has the will that she wants, like Frankfurt’s willing addict, she is free. However, the method by which she becomes free requires avoiding behaviors she might otherwise exhibit while in an intermediary state of irrational and unfree behavior. I argue that attention to the moral psychology of this addict illuminates why direct and complete control over the will at the time of action is not necessary for free action. When control is lacking, our behavior can still be free if there is a minimal causal connection between our prior rational decisions and achievement of our goals. Since it is more rational to anticipate irrational moments and manipulate oneself into surviving them than it is to insist that this time will be different, such behavior is free (and freely executed) despite the agent’s lack of control at the moment of acting. Keywords: Free Action, Frankfurt, Precommitment, Binding, Addiction Introduction In, “Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person,” Harry Frankfurt states that one acts freely when one has the will one wants (1988a). Frankfurt appeals to two kinds of addicts—the unwilling addict and the willing addict—to illustrate this point. 1 Objectors complain that, because a willing addict only acts freely when she happens to want what she is determined to do, Frankfurt‟s description of free 1 Frankfurt discusses a third kind of addict—the wanton addict—who does not care which desires become her will. She is not a person. For this reason, I restrict this discussion to the other two types.