The Palgrave Handbook of Philosophy and Psychoactive Drug Use

In this Handbook, philosophers from around the world address the metaphysics, epistemology, and value of psychoactive (mind-altering) drug use.  In so doing, they attempt to answer questions such as: What does the fact of drug-induced mind-altering experiences tell us about natures of the mind, free will, and God?  What does it tell us about what, and how, we can know?  Are drug-induced mind-altering experiences valuable, morally, aesthetically, or otherwise?  Is the acquisition of drug-induced mind-altering experiences ever immoral?  Should the acquisition of drug-induced mind-altering experiences ever be legally prohibited?   The Handbook gives an overview of the current research, and sets the stage for future directions in philosophical thought relating to psychoactive drug use. 

Introduction.- Part I Metaphysics.- The Bergsonian Metaphysics Behind Huxley’s Doors.- Know Thy Non-Self: Meditation, Psychedelics, and Personal Identity.- A Theurgical Interpretation of Drug Use.- Does God Know What It’s Like to Get High?.- Drug Addiction and Free Will: Theoretical and Practical Considerations.- My Drug Buddy: Expectations and Company as Drug-Effect Modulators.- How to End the Mysticism Wars in Psychedelic Science.- What Is Medical Cannabis?.- Part II Epistemology.- The Epistemology of Psychedelic Experience.- Can Psychedelic Experience Lead to Knowledge?.- On Acid Empiricism.- Epistemic Character Change: Psychedelic Experiences as a Case Study.- Whippet Good? William James, Nitrous Oxide, and the Ignition of the Yes Function.- The Paradoxes of Psychedelic Humanities.- From Zerrissenheit to Distributed Intelligence: On Recovery and Philosophy.- Part III Value.- Higher And Lower Highs: Drug Pleasures and Mill’s Qualitative Hedonism.- Meaning-of-Life Externalism: A Defense of Old-Fashioned Reality.- Might Stoners Live Better Lives? Drug Use and Human Welfare.- The Psychedelic Experience as an Ethical Experience.- Epiphanies and Aspirations: How Psychedelic Experiences Affect Values.- Part IV Morality.- A Kantian Argument for Recreational Drug Use.- Putting Oneself at Risk for the Fun of It: On Drugs, Extreme Sports, and the Rational and Moral Permissibility of Engaging in Risky Behavior.- Responsibility for Addiction: Risk, Value, and Reasonable Foreseeability.- Therapist, Trip Sitter Or Guide? A Second-Person Perspective on Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy.- Part V Law and Politics.- Why Harm Reduction Programs Should Be Extended to Include Psychedelic Drugs.- Why Should Drugs Be Decriminalized?.- A Case for Legalizing Recreational Drug Use.- A Politics of Ecstasy: A Foucauldian Approach to Psychoactive Substances.- “Mixing the Barricade and the Dance Floor”: Recovering Acid Communism at Zabriskie Point.- Part VI Aesthetics.- The Aesthetics of Drugs.- High Off the Sound: An Examination of the “Druggy Aesthetic” in Music.- Psychedelic Transformation and Kantian Aesthetics.

Rob Lovering is Professor of Philosophy at the City University of New York – College of Staten Island, USA. His previous books include God and Evidence: Problems for Theistic Philosophers (2013), A Moral Defense of Recreational Drug Use (2015), and A Moral Defense of Prostitution (2021).