Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Artificial Paradise Revisited

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Fragile Stabilität – stabile Fragilität

Part of the book series: zu | schriften der Zeppelin Universität ((zszuzwkp))

Zusammenfassung

Follawing the economic theory of addiction the paper takes addiction not to be the exception to the rule but rather the paradigm of life. Unsteady equilibrium, adjacent complementarity, and hyperbolic discounting identified by economic theory as the conditions for addiction to develop are at the same time tantamount to a preference for the present as the foture becomes more and more uncertain. The paper starts from Charles Baudelaire's observations on artificial paradises produced by the intake of opium and hashish and looks at what reasons Baudelaire lists to both be acquainted with drugs and to refrain from them. A culture of gambling is described as a way to keep in touch with the fascination for addiction without actually falling for it. Modern culture is seen to be a culture of artifice, which for any of us is difficult to tell apart from a culture addicted to itself

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

Literatur

  • Baecker, Dirk (1999): The Form Game, in Dirk Baecker (ed.), Problems of Form, Stanford, CA: Stanford UP: 99–106.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baecker, Dirk (2007): Studien zur nächsten Gesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baecker, Dirk (2007/8): The Network Synthesis of Social Action, I: Towards a Sociological Theory of Next Society, and II: Understanding Catjects, Cybernetics and Human Knowing14: 9-42, and 15: 45–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bateson, Gregory (1956): The Message ‘This is a Play’, in Bertram Schaffner (ed.), Group Processes: Transactions of the Second Conference, October 1955, Princeton, New York: Josia Macy, jr., Foundation: 145–242.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bateson, Gregory (2000): Steps to an Ecology of Mind, Reprint Chicago: Chicago UP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baudelaire, Charles (2000): Du vin et du hachisch, suivi de Les Paradis artificiels, préface et notes par Jean-Luc Steinmetz, Paris: Librairie Générale Française.

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker, Gary S. (1965): A Theory of the Allocation of Time, The Economic Journal 75: 493–517.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker, Gary S. (1974): A Theory of Social Interaction, Journal of Political Economy 82: 1063–1093.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becker, Gary S. (1976): The Economic Approach to Human Behavior, Chicago: Chicago UP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker, Gary S., and Kevin M. Murphy (1988): A Theory of Rational Addiction, Journal of Political Economy 96: 675–700.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bernheim, B. Douglas, and Antonio Rangel (2004): Addiction and Cue-Triggered Decision Processes, American Economic Review 94: 1558–1590.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Binde, Per (2009): Gambling Motivation and Involvement: A Review of Social Science Research, Östersund: Swedish National Institute of Public Health.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bloch, Herbert A. (1951): The Sociology of Gambling, American Journal of Sociology 57: 215–221.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burke, Kenneth (1969): A Grammar of Motives, Reprint Berkeley, CA: California UP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, and Stith Bennett (1971): An Exploratory Model of Play, American Anthropologist 73: 45–58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, John Booth (1992): The Myth of Addition: An Application of the Psychological Theory of Attribution to Illicit Drug Use, Chur: Harwood Academic Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fink, Eugen (1960): Spiel als Weltsymbol, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.

    Google Scholar 

  • France, Clemens J. (1902): The Gambling Impulse, American Journal of Psychology 13: 364–407.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frost, Robert (2002): Robert Frost’s Poems, ed. Louis Untermeyer, New York: St. Martin’s Paperbacks.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibson , Barry , Sam Acquah, and Peter G. Robinson (2004): Entangled Identities and Psychotropic Substance Use, Sociology of Health & Illness 26: 597–616.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, Erving (1952): On Cooling the Mark Out: Some Aspects of Adaptation to Failure, Psychiatry: Journal of Interpersonal Relations 15: 451–463.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, Erving (1967): Where The Action Is, in Erving Goffman, Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face-to-Face Behavior, New York: Pantheon: 149–270.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, Erving (1974): Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience, Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gruber, Jonathan, and Botond Köszegi (2001): Is Addiction ‘Rational’? Theory and Evidence, Quarterly Journal of Economics 116: 1261–1303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Günther, Gotthard (1979): Cognition and Volition: A Contribution to a Cybernetic Theory of Subjectivity, in Gotthard Günther, Beiträge zur Grundlegung einer operationsfähigen Dialektik, vol. 2, Hamburg: Meiner: 203–240.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jensen, Michael C. (1998): Foundations of Organizational Strategy, Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latour, Bruno, and Antonin Vincent Lépinay (2008): L’économie, sciences des intérêts passionnées: Introduction à l’anthropologie économique de Gabriel Tarde, Paris: La Découverte.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lazarus, M. (1883): Über die Reize des Spiels, Berlin: F. Dümmler.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lehmann, Maren (2011): Wissenschaft im Rausch, in Maren Lehmann, Theorie in Skizzen, Berlin: Merve: 160–172.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindesmith, Alfred R. (1938): A Sociological Theory of Drug Addiction, American Journal of Sociology 43: 593–613.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loroz, Peggy Sue (2004): Golden-Age Gambling: Psychological Benefits and Self-Concept Dynamics in Aging Consumers’ Consumption Experiences, Psychology & Marketing 21: 323–349.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lotman, Yuri M. (2001): Universe of the Mind: A Semiotic Theory of Culture, transl. Ann Shukman, New York: Tauris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marshall, Alfred (1961): Principles of Economics, 9th (Variorum) Edition, London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mead, George Herbert Mead (1959): The Philosophy of the Present, ed. Arthur E. Murphy, La Salle, IL: Open Court Publ.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michael, Robert T., and Gary S. Becker (1973): On the New Theory of Consumer Behavior, Swedish Journal of Economics 75: 378–396.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, Stephen (1973): Ends, Means, and Galumphing: Some Leitmotifs of Play, American Anthropologist 5: 87–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mishra , Sandeep , Martin L. Lalumière, Michael Morgan, and Robert J. Williams (2010): An Examination of the Relationship Between Gambling and Antisocial Behavior, Journal of Gambling Studies, online first (September 2010).

    Google Scholar 

  • Parsons, Talcott, and Neil J. Smelser (1984): Economy and Society: A Study in the Integration of Economic and Social Theory, Reprint London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peirce, Charles Sanders (1983): Phänomen und Logik der Zeichen, ed. and transl. Helmut Pape, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogeberg, Ole (2004): Taking Absurd Theories Seriously: Economics and the Case of Rational Addiction Theories, Philosophy of Science 71: 263–285.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sallaz, Jeffrey J. (2006): The Making of the Global Gambling Industry: An Application of Field Theory, Sociological Theory 35: 265–297.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwartzman, John (1977): Addict Abstinence and the Illusion of Alternatives, Ethos 5: 138–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shackle. G. L. S. (1971): Information, Formalism, and Choice, in Mario J. Rizzo (ed.), Time, Uncertainty, and Disequilibrium: Exploration of Austrian Themes, Lexington, MA: Lexington Books: 19–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spencer-Brown, George (2008): Laws of Form, intern. ed., Leipzig: Bohmeier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stigler, George J., and Gary S. Becker (1977): De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum, American Economic Review 67: 76–90.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stillwell, John (2001): Mathematics and Its History, 2nd ed., New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swidler, Ann (1986): Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies, American Sociological Review 51: 273–288.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tarde, Gabriel (1902): Psychologie économique, 2 vols., Paris: Alcan.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, Harrison C. (1992): Identity and Control: A Structural Theory of Action, Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP.

    Google Scholar 

  • White, Harrison C. (2008): Identity and Control: How Social Formations Emerge, 2nd ed., Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wood, Robert T., Robert J. Williams, and Paul K. Lawton (2007): Why Do Internet Gamblers Prefer Online Versus Land-Based Venues? Some Preliminary Findings and Applications, Journal of Gambling Issues 20: 235–252.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Friedrichshafen, Deutschland

    Dirk Baecker

Authors
  1. Dirk Baecker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dirk Baecker .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Zeppelin Universität, Am Seemoser Horn 20, Friedrichshafen, 88045, Germany

    Stephan A. Jansen

  2. Zeppelin Universität, Am Seemoser Horn 20, Friedrichshafen, 88045, Germany

    Eckhard Schröter

  3. Karl-Mannheim-LS für Kulturwissenschaft, Zeppelin Universität, Am Seemooser Horn 20, Friedrichshafen, 88045, Germany

    Nico Stehr

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Baecker, D. (2013). Artificial Paradise Revisited. In: Jansen, S., Schröter, E., Stehr, N. (eds) Fragile Stabilität – stabile Fragilität. zu | schriften der Zeppelin Universität. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-02248-8_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-02248-8_3

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer VS, Wiesbaden

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-658-02247-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-658-02248-8

  • eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Science (German Language)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation