The Palgrave Handbook of Philosophy and Psychoactive Drug Use

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).

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.