ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the application of this mechanistic perspective to addiction. It is important to note at the outset that mechanistic explanations are a specific type of causal explanation. Mechanistic explanation is not the only type of explanation with the property of epistemic decomposition. Functional explanations work similarly, and also fit in with an abstract picture of the medical model as the investigation of abnormal relations among cognitive-biological processes. A mechanistic explanation would show how the functional analysis of addiction into psychological capacities and dispositions actually takes place in human beings. The dominant neuroscientific enterprise concentrates on addiction to substances, and so seems a good place to start when looking for a phenomenon suitable for a mechanistic explanation of addiction. A mechanistic explanation, if it is to be a general explanation of addiction, needs to apply to a phenomenon that unifies all the syndromes of interest.
