C. A. Campbell
contemporaryBritish Idealism, Libertarianism (Free Will)1897 – 1974
Charles Arthur Campbell (1897–1974) was a Scottish philosopher and professor at the University of Glasgow, best known for his vigorous defense of libertarian free will against compatibilist accounts. He argued that genuine moral responsibility requires that an agent could have genuinely done otherwise, grounding this claim in the phenomenology of moral effort and the structure of deliberation. His work bridges British Idealism and mid-century analytic philosophy.
Notable Achievements
1
Defended libertarian free will against compatibilism in 'In Defence of Free Will' (1967)
2
Argued that genuine moral responsibility entails categorical, not merely hypothetical, ability to do otherwise
3
Developed a phenomenological account of moral effort as evidence for agent causation
4
Integrated philosophy of religion and metaphysics of selfhood in 'On Selfhood and Godhood' (1957)
5
Demonstrated that free will debates are inseparable from foundational questions in metaphysics and ethics