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118The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friend- ship that Shaped Modern Thought Review (review)Rivista di Filosofia 109 (2): 477-00. 2018.In this brief review it is not possible to do full justice to this lively and lucidly present- ed study. It is fair to say, I think, that the considerable mer- its of this work rest primarily with its intelligent and reliable selection of material, most of which is already available and familiar. This study does not aim to challenge any orthodox- ies or present new material of some significant kind. Rasmus- sen does not need to do this since his real concern is to tell a story about two great th…Read more
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237Hume's skepticism and the problem of atheismIn Recasting Hume and Early Modern Philosophy: Selected Essays, Oxford University Press. pp. 303-339. 2021.David Hume was clearly a critic of religion. It is still debated, however, whether or not he was an atheist who denied the existence of God. According to some interpretations he was a theist of some kind and others claim he was an agnostic who simply suspends any belief on this issue. This essay argues that Hume’s theory of belief tells against any theistic interpretation – including the weaker, “attenuated” accounts. It then turns to the case for the view that Hume’s criticisms of theism were l…Read more
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61Free Will PessimismIn David Shoemaker (ed.), Oxford Studies in Agency and Responsibility Volume 4, Oxford University Press. 2017.The immediate aim of this paper is to articulate the essential features of an alternative compatibilist position, one that is responsive to sources of resistance to the compatibilist program based on considerations of fate and luck. The approach taken relies on distinguishing carefully between issues of skepticism and pessimism as they arise in this context. A compatibilism that is properly responsive to concerns about fate and luck is committed to what I describe as free will pessimism, which i…Read more
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14Compatibilist-Fatalism: Finitude, Pessimism, and the Limits of Free WillIn Paul Russell & Oisin Deery (eds.), The Philosophy of Free Will: Essential Readings From the Contemporary Debates, Oxford University Press. pp. 450. 2013.Originally published in Ton van den Beld, ed., MORAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ONTOLOGY. Kluwer. 2000.
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65Hobbes, Bramhall, and the Free Will ProblemIn Desmonde Clarke Catherine Wilson (ed.), Oxford Handbook of Early modern Philosophy, Oxford University Press. pp. 424-444. 2011.Thomas Hobbes changed the face of moral philosophy in ways that still structure and resonate within the contemporary debate. It was Hobbes’s central aim, particularly as expressed in the Leviathan, to make moral philosophy genuinely ‘scientific’, where this term is understood as science had developed and evolved in the first half of the seventeenth century. Specifically, it was Hobbes’s aim to provide a thoroughly naturalistic description of human beings in terms of the basic categories and laws…Read more
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15The Oxford Handbook of David Hume (edited book)Oxford University Press. 2016.The Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776) is widely regarded as the greatest and most significant English-speaking philosopher and often seen as having had the most influence on the way philosophy is practiced today in the West. His reputation is based not only on the quality of his philosophical thought but also on the breadth and scope of his writings, which ranged over metaphysics, epistemology, morals, politics, religion, and aesthetics. The Handbook's 38 newly commissioned chapters ar…Read more
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110Ambiguity and "Atheism" in Hume's DialoguesIn Hume’s ‘Dialogues concerning Natural Religion’: A Critical Guide, Cambridge University Press. forthcoming.This paper considers the question of “atheism” as it arises in Hume’s _Dialogues_. It argues that the concept of “atheism” involves several signficiant ambiguities that are indicative of philosophical and interpretive disagreements of a more substantial nature. It defends the view that Philo’s general sceptical orientation accurately represents Hume’s own “irreligious” and “atheistic” commitments, both in the _Dialogues_ and in his other (“earlier”) writings. While Hume was plainly a “speculativ…Read more
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85Introduction to "Hume’s ‘Dialogues concerning Natural Religion’: A Critical Guide"In Hume’s ‘Dialogues concerning Natural Religion’: A Critical Guide, Cambridge University Press. forthcoming.This introduction provides a brief overview of the issues and arguments that arise in Hume's _Dialogues concerning Natural Religion_ (1779). It also provides a few brief comments relating to the historical context in which this text should be interpreted , as well as an account of the place of the _Dialogues_ in relation to Hume's other philosophical works.
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109Hume’s ‘Dialogues concerning Natural Religion’: A Critical Guide (edited book)Cambridge University Press. forthcoming.Contributors: John Beatty (British Columbia); Kelly James Clark (Ibn Haldun, Istanbul); Angela Coventry (Portland State); Thomas Holden (UC Santa Barbara); Willem Lemmens (Antwerp); Robin Le Poidevin (Leeds); Jennifer Marusic (Edinburgh); Kevin Meeker (South Alabama); Amyas Merivale (Oxford); Peter Millican (Oxford); Dan O’Brien (Oxford Brookes); Graham Oppy (Monash); Paul Russell (Lund); Andre C. Willis (Brown).
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86"Free Will"In Don Garrett & Edward Barbanell (eds.), Encyclopedia of empiricism, Greenwood Press. pp. 107-111. 1997.FREE WILL. The problem of "free will" has generally been interpreted in modern times in terms of the question of whether or not moral freedom and responsibility are compatible with causality and determinism. Philosophers in the empiricist tradition have defended, with remarkable consistency, a compatibilist position on this issue. Moreover, most of the major figures of the empiricist tradition (i.e. Hobbes, Locke, Hume, Mill, Schlick, and Ayer) are understood to have endorsed and contributed to …Read more
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86Dudgeon, William (1705/6–1743), freethinker and philosopherIn Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford Univerrsity Press. 2004.Dudgeon, William (1705/6–1743), freethinker and philosopher, is of unknown origins. A tenant farmer who resided at Lennel Hill Farm, near Coldstream, Berwickshire, he was one of several philosophers active in the borders area of Scotland during this period. Other figures in this group include Andrew Baxter, Henry Home (Lord Kames), and most importantly David Hume.....
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161Recasting Responsibility: Hume and WilliamsIn Marcel van Ackeren & Matthieu Queloz (eds.), Bernard Williams on Philosophy and History, Oxford University Press. forthcoming.Bernard Williams identifies Hume as “in some ways an archetypal reconciler” who, nevertheless, displays “a striking resistance to some of the central tenets of what [Williams calls] ‘morality’”. This assessment, it is argued, is generally correct. There are, however, some significant points of difference in their views concerning moral responsibility. This includes Williams’s view that a naturalistic project of the kind that Hume pursues is of limited value when it comes to making sense of “mora…Read more
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11"Moral Sentiment and the Rationale of Responsibility"Dissertation, Cambridge University. 1986.This thesis defends a naturalistic interpretation, and offers a critical analysis, of the views of David Hume on the subject of free will and moral responsibility. A central theme is that Hume's views should be understood and assessed in relation to P.F. Strawson's influential paper "Freedom and Resentment" (1962). The work in this thesis lays the foundation for "Freedom and Moral Sentiment: Hume's Way of Naturalizing Responsibility" (Oxford University Press: 1995)
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178The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship that Shaped Modern Thought (review)Rivista di Filosofia 109 (3): 477-500. 2018.In this brief review it is not possible to do full justice to this lively and lucidly presented study. It is fair to say, I think, that the considerable merits of this work rest primarily with its intelligent and reliable selection of material, most of which is already available and familiar. This study does not aim to challenge any orthodoxies or present new material of some significant kind. Rasmussen does not need to do this since his real concern is to tell a story about two great thinkers i…Read more
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The Reason View and "the Morality System"In Michael Frauchiger & Markus Stepanians (eds.), Themes from Wolf. forthcoming.This paper examines Susan Wolf's accout of "the Reason View" of moral responsibility as articulated and defended in 'Freedom Within Reason' (OUP 1990). The discussion turns on two questions about the Reason View: (1) Does the Reason View aim to satisfy what Bernard Williams describes as “morality” and its (“peculiar”) conception of responsibility and blame? (2) If it does, how successful is the Reason View judged in these terms? It is argued that if the Reason View aims to satisfy “morality” in …Read more
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313Responses to Ryan, Fosl and Gautier: SKEPSIS Book Symposium on 'Recasting Hume and Early Modern Philosophy', by Paul RussellSkepsis: A Journal for Philosophy and Interdisciplinary Research 14 (26): 121-139. 2023.In the replies to my critics that follow I offer a more detailed account of the specific papers that they discuss or examine. The papers that they are especially concerned with are: “The Material World and Natural Religion in Hume’s Treatise” (Ryan) [Essay 3], “Hume’s Skepticism and the Problem of Atheism” (Fosl) [Essay 12], and “Hume’s Philosophy of Irreligion and the Myth of British Empiricism (Gautier) [Essay 16]
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302Precis of Recasting Hume and Early Modern Philosophy. SKEPSIS Book Symposium: Paul Russell, Recasting Hume and Early Modern Philosophy, With replies to critics: Peter Fosl (pp. 77-95), Claude Gautier (pp. 96-111) , and Todd Ryan (pp.112-122).Skepsis: A Journal for Philosophy and Interdisciplinary Research 14 (26): 71-73. 2023.Recasting Hume and Early Modern Philosophy is a collection of essays that are all concerned with major figures and topics in the early modern philosophy. Most of the essays are concerned, more specifically, with the philosophy of David Hume (1711-1776). The sixteen essays included in this collection are divided into five parts. These parts are arranged under the headings of: (1) Metaphysics and Epistemology; (2) Free Will and Moral Luck; (3) Ethics, Virtue and Optimism; (4) Skepticism, Religion …Read more
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169Hume’s Critique of Religion: Sick Men’s Dreams, by A. Bailey & D. O'Brien (review)Philosophical Quarterly 68 (273): 867-70. 2018.Hume’s Critique of Religion is a valuable and rewarding contribution to Hume scholarship. The atheistic interpretation that the authors defend is well supported and convincingly argued. Although Gaskin’s Hume’s Philosophy of Religion is (rightly) highly regarded, I believe that Bailey and O’Brien provide a more compelling and convincing interpretation. Their account is, in particular, much stronger in respect of the historical background and contextual considerations that they draw on to support…Read more
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178Virtue by consensus: the moral philosophy of Hutcheson, Hume, and Adam Smith, by Vincent Hope (review)Ethics 101 (4): 873-875. 1991.... In Virtue byConsensus Vincent Hope sets out to correct this "serious imbalance in the usual estimation of the relative merit of Hutcheson, Hume and Smith" (p. 3). He argues that "Hume has been given too much prominence and his importance has been exaggerated" (p. 3). Hope is especially concerned to place more emphasis on Smith who, he says, "has received far less attention than he deserves" (p. 3). Hope suggests that his claim to offer something new on the work of these thinkers rests, ultim…Read more
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16Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities by Martha Nussbaum (review)Globe and Mail. 2010.Nussbaum's analysis of our predicament turns on a contrast between two rival models of education. The "old model," concerned with education for profit and economic growth, places heavy emphasis on the skills associated with science and technology. From this perspective, the study of literature, history, philosophy, languages and the arts make no real or significant contribution to our basic economic needs and concerns - they may even be obstacles. In contrast, Nussbaum defends "the human develop…Read more
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1197Of Gods and Clocks: Free Will and Hobbes-Bramhall DebateIn Recasting Hume and Early Modern Philosophy: Selected Essays, Oxford University Press. pp. 133-157. 2021.Contrary to John Bramhall and critics like him, Thomas Hobbes takes the view that no account of liberty or freedom can serve as the relevant basis on which to distinguish moral from nonmoral agents or explains the basis on which an agent becomes subject to law and liable to punishment. The correct compatibilist strategy rests, on Hobbes’s account, with a proper appreciation and description of the contractualist features that shape and structure the moral community. From this perspective human ag…Read more
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206Responsibility Naturalized: A Qualified Defence of HumeIn Freedom and Moral Sentiment: Hume's Way of Naturalizing Responsibility, Oxford University Press. pp. 170-185. 1995.This concluding chapter of FREEDOM AND MORAL SENTIMENT (OUP 1995) provides a qualified defense of Hume's naturalistic approach to the problem of free will and moral responsibility. A particularly important theme is the contrast between Hume's naturalistic approach and the “rationalistic” approach associated with classical compatibilism. Whereas the rationalistic approach proceeds as an a priori, conceptual investigation into the nature and conditions of moral responsibility, the naturalistic app…Read more
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37David Hume, essays, Moral, Political, and Literary, T. Beauchamp & M. Box, eds. (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. 2023.The new two volume edition of Hume’s Essays, Moral, Political and Literary, edited by Tom Beauchamp and Mark Box, is the first critical edition.[3] What primarily distinguishes a critical edition is that it collates the copy-text with all other editions and provides a complete record of variations in the texts. Beauchamp and Box provide readers with detailed, informative notes and annotations that describe the variations and revisions that have been made to the Essays published within Hume’s lif…Read more
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46"The Misuse of Morality" - Review of "Grandstanding The use and abuse of moral talk" by Justin Tosi and Brandon Warmke (review)The Times Literary Supplement. 2021.Grandstanding The use and abuse of moral talk 248pp. Oxford University Press. £14.99. Justin Tosi and Brandon Warmke "... Grandstanding is a valuable and timely book. It provides a lively, engaging and informed account of some of the crucial issues and troubling problems that we face, and which are disrupting liberal democratic political and social life throughout the world right now. While it will certainly stimulate conversation and debate, it is balanced and moderate in its tone. But this is …Read more
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226The Limits of ToleranceAEON. 2017.A religious worldview cannot expect the same kinds of tolerance as racial, gender, or sexual identities. Here’s why... ... How should the Left understand and practise religious tolerance in the face of the emphasis that various groups now place on the value of their religious identities? This is a question that has, of course, become tangled up with overlapping issues, such as racism, anti-immigrant sentiment, and various forms of nationalist xenophobia. But we should keep these issues separate …Read more
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191Vice Dressed as VirtueAeon. 2020.Cruelty and morality seem like polar opposites – until they join forces. Beware those who persecute in the name of principle... Following in the steps of Michel de Montaigne, the distinguished political philosopher Judith Shklar has argued that cruelty should be considered the supreme evil and that we should put it first among the vices. The essence of cruelty is to wilfully and needlessly inflict pain and suffering on another creature – be it an animal or a human being. Closely related to this …Read more
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143"Self-help on the go: Sketches of ‘le bon David’ and the good life" by Julian Baggini (review)Times Literary Supplement 6182. 2021.THE GREAT GUIDE What David Hume can teach us about being human and living well 328pp. Princeton University Press. £20 (US $24.95). Julian Baggini "... The most successful aspect of The Great Guide is the “Hop-On Hop-Off” intellectual tour that it offers. The reader is taken around the various locations where Hume’s life and ideas developed, moving from country to country, city to city, and stopping off at a few stately homes en route. This tour begins with Hume’s birthplace and early education i…Read more
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165"Ever Thus": Review of THE PHILOSOPHERS’ QUARREL by Robert Zaretsky and John T. Scott (review)The Times Literary Supplement 5616 29. 2010.... The Philosophers’ Quarrel is an enjoyable tour through the salons, great cities and country retreats of the Enlightenment, in the company of some of its brightest stars. Although much of the tale turns on some tedious details of the various intrigues of Hume and Rousseau, together with their friends and collaborators, Zaretsky and Scott manage to provide their account with a number of interesting and valuable insights into the character of the thinkers involved and the social and cultural li…Read more
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197Hume: An Intellectual Biography by James Harris (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 1. 2016.James A. Harris's biography of David Hume is the first such study to appear since Ernest Mossner's The Life of David Hume (1954). Unlike Mossner, Harris aims to write a specifically "intellectual biography", one that gives "a complete picture of Hume's ideas" and "relates Hume's works to the circumstances in which they were conceived and written" (vii). Harris's study turns on four central theses or claims about the character of Hume's thought and how it is structured and developed. The claims a…Read more
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407Free Will and the Tragic Predicament: Making Sense of WilliamsIn András Szigeti & Matthew Talbert (eds.), Morality and Agency: Themes From Bernard Williams, Oxford University Press, Usa. pp. 163-183. 2022.Free Will & The Tragic Predicament : Making Sense of Williams The discussion in this paper aims to make better sense of free will and moral responsibility by way of making sense of Bernard Williams’ significant and substantial contribution to this subject. Williams’ fundamental objective is to vindicate moral responsibility by way of freeing it from the distortions and misrepresentations imposed on it by “the morality system”. What Williams rejects, in particular, are the efforts of “morality” …Read more
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Areas of Specialization
Free Will and Responsibility |
David Hume |
17th/18th Century Philosophy |
Hume: Atheism |