ABSTRACT
Moral questions play a very large role in the evaluation of the behavior of people called 'addicts'. The analysis must specify that the behavior induced by the desire be characterized in terms of that desire. All addicts are compulsives and all compulsives are impotents, but not conversely. Impotents do not have the freedom or power to do otherwise, but some of those who are not compulsives may be said to act freely and can be morally responsible for their actions. Advocates of a hierarchical conception of freedom would permit even addicts to be described as acting freely, so long as they endorse their status and are not unwilling to be moved to act by their overwhelming desire. To be sure, the modal character of the concept of impotence permits a vagueness which itself allows for disagreement about actual cases. But surely the vast number of cases identified as addiction are ones of moral, not even psychological, irresistibility.
