Paul Russell is a contemporary analytic philosopher specializing in free will, moral responsibility, and the philosophy of David Hume. He has developed a Humean naturalist account of moral responsibility grounded in reactive attitudes and sentiment, and has argued that free will debates are irreducibly tied to both metaphysical and ethical commitments. He holds appointments at the University of British Columbia and the University of Gothenburg.
Authored Freedom and Moral Sentiment: Hume's Way of Naturalizing Responsibility (1995), a landmark study of Humean compatibilism
Authored The Riddle of Hume's Treatise: Skepticism, Naturalism, and Irreligion (2008)
Developed a naturalistic, sentiment-based account of moral responsibility drawing on P.F. Strawson and Hume
Argued that free will disputes necessarily implicate substantive ethical commitments, not merely metaphysical ones
Contributed to debates on manipulation arguments, sourcehood, and the ethics of blame
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