Paul Russell holds a PhD from Cambridge University (1986), where his supervisor was Professor Sir Bernard Williams.

Prior to his current position at Lund University he has held positions as Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia and at Gothenburg University. He has also held a Research Fellowship at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, as well as visiting (teaching) appointments in philosophy at Virginia, Stanford, Pittsburgh and North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Among the various honours and awards he has received are a Fowler Hamilton Visiting Fellowship at Christ Church, Oxford University (2010) and the Journal of the History of Philosophy prize for best book published in the history of philosophy in 2008 [awarded to The Riddle of Hume's Treatise (Oxford University Press)]. In 2005 he was appointed a Kenan Distinguished Visiting Professsor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The University of British Columbia awarded him a Killam Teaching Prize (in 2007) and a Killam Faculty Research Prize (in 2014). His current position at Lund has been made possible thanks to a major grant from the Swedish Research Council for "the international recruitment of leading researchers" (2014).

He has served on the Editorial Board of both the Journal of the History of Philosophy [2013-2019] and Hume Studies [2005-2010].

Paul Russell was recently elected Beaufort Visiting Fellow at St. John's College, Cambridge for Lent term 2023.

In 2017 he published The Limits of Free Will [Oxford University Press] a volume of selected essays on the topic of free will and moral responsibility. In 2021 he published a second volume of essays, titled Recasting Hume & Early Modern Philosophy [Oxford University Press], a collection of papers on Hume and early modern philosophy. (On his other recent publications see further below.) His papers have been published in a variety of academic journals [Mind, Ethics, etc.], as well as in influential collections and anthologies [e.g. the Oxford Handbooks, Cambridge Companions, etc.]. Along with his academic publications he has also published opinion pieces and reviews in a variety of venues, including the Times Literary Supplement, The Scotsman, the Globe & Mail, the Vancouver SUN, and AEON. Selections of his work have been translated into several languages, including Chinese, Polish, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, and Hungarian.

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Books:

• Recasting Hume & Early Modern Philosophy: Selected Essays (Oxford University Press: 2021).
• -- Symposium on Recasting Hume and Early Modern Philosophy: Sképsis (forthcoming, 2022). Contributors: Peter Fosl, Todd Ryan, and Claude Gautier .

• The Limits of Free Will: Selected Essays (Oxford University Press: 2017).

• -- Hans Krauch, Metapsychology Online Reviews, Sep 25th 2018 (Volume 22, Issue 39).
• -- Lorenzo Greco, RIVISTA DI FILOSOFIA / vol. CIX, n. 3, dicembre 2018
• -- Richard Baron, Philosophical Quarterly, online January 2019.
• -- Robyn Repko Waller, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (March 2019)
• -- Jenann Ismael, Fate's scales, quivering [ Times Literary Supplement: August 2019]
• -- Symposium on The Limits of Free Will: in Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 24.1 (2021): 317--373

• - Meghan Griffith, Ethics, 130:3, 469-474 (2020).

• The Riddle of Hume’s Treatise: Skepticism, Naturalism, and Irreligion. (New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press: 2008).

• -- Rico Vitz, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews [ 27/07/08]

• -- Andrew Pyle, Philosophy in Review, 28.6 (2008), 429-31.
• -- Mark G. Spencer, Enlightenment and Dissent, 24 (2008), 135-8.
• -- Michel Malherbe, Hume Studies, 34.2 (2008): 305-08
• -- Times Literary Supplement, February 6, 2009 [“On Target”, James Harris].
• -- Peter Kail, Review of Metaphysics (June, 2009): 944-6.
• -- J.W. McNabb, Eighteenth Century Fiction, 22.1 (Fall 2009): 151-154.
• -- James Harris, “Of Hobbes and Hume”, Philosophical Books (Sep. 2009), 38-46.
• -- Kenneth R. Stunkel, The European Legacy, 14.6 (2009): 737-8.
• -- Don Garrett, Philosophical Review, 119.1 (2010): 108-112.
• -- Eugenio Lecaldano, Rivista di Filosofia, (2010).
• -- Colin Heydt, Journal of the History of Philosophy, 48.3 (2010): 401-402.
• -- Peter Millican, British Journal of the History of Philosophy, 19.2 (2011), 348-53.
• -- David Pailin, The Journal of Theological Studies, 62 (2011).
• -- Lorenzo Greco, The Philosophical Quarterly, 62 (2012), 432-35.
• -- Eric Schliesser, Hopos, 3 (2013), 172-75.
• -- Kevin Meeker, Mind, 124 (2015), 675-79.

• Freedom and Moral Sentiment: Hume's Way of Naturalizing Responsibility (New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995).

• -- Kenneth Richman, Canadian Philosophical Reviews, 36 (1996), 371-3.
• -- Peter S. Fosl, Eighteenth Century Scotland (Spring 1996).
• -- Donald Ainslie, Philosophical Review, 107 (1997), 596-9.
• -- Terence Penelhum, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 28 (1998), 81-94. [Critical Notice]
• -- Ira Singer, Ethics, 109 (1999), 459-61.
• -- Nathan Brett, Dialogue, 68 (1999), 659-62.
• -- Vere Chappell, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 59 (1999), 263-5.
• -- Kathleen Schmitt, Hume Studies, 25 (1999), 263-65.
• -- Robert Shaver, International Studies in Philosophy, 36 (2004), 280-01.

Books Edited and Introduced:

• Hume's 'Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion': A Critical Guide. Edited and Introduced. Cambridge University Press. [forthcoming]

• The Oxford Handbook of HUME. Edited and Introduced. (Oxford University Press: 2016).

• -- Gregory F.W. Todd, Metapsychology Online Reviews, 09.08 (2016).
• -- C. S. Johnson, Choice, October 2016 Vol. 54 No. 2
• -- Jonathan Cottrell, British Journal for the History of Philosophy (September 2017).
• -- Katie Paxman, Journal of Scottish Philosophy, 17(1): 93–99.

• The Philosophy of Free Will: Essential Readings from the Contemporary Debates. Introduced and edited with Oisin Deery (Oxford University Press: 2013).

• -- William Simkulet, Metapsychology Online Reviews, 18.11 (2014).
• -- Harry van den Bouwhuuiijsen, Tilschrift voor Filosofie, 76 (2014), 390 - .

• Free Will and Reactive Attitudes: Perspectives on P.F. Strawson’s “Freedom and Resentment”, Introduced and edited with Michael McKenna (Farnham: Ashgate: 2008).

• Ishtiyaque Haji, Philosophical Quarterly, 60.238 (2010), 213-18.
• Lindsay Kelland, Philosophical Papers, 39.1 (2010), 135-40.
• Willem, Lemmens, Ethical Perspectives, 18 (2011), 150-51.
• Bradford McCall, The Heythrop Journal, 52.2 (2011), 340-1

• Joseph J. Russell, Analysis and Dialectic: Studies in the Logic of Foundation Problems, Introduced and edited by P. Russell (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1984).

Articles and Papers:

• "Responsibility After 'Morality': Strawson's Naturalism and Williams' Genealogy". P. F. Strawson and His Legacy. A. Bengtson, B. De Mesel and S. Heyndels, eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

• • "Free Will and the Tragic Predicament: Making Sense of Williams", in Morality and Agency: Themes from Bernard Williams. A. Szigeti & M. Talbert, eds. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • "David Hume's Treatise of Human Nature", Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

• “Moral Responsibility and Existential Attitudes”, In The Oxford Handbook of Moral Responsibility. D. Nelkin and D. Pereboom, eds. Oxford University Press: New York, 519-543.

• "David Hume and the Philosophy of Religion", in Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia for Philosophy of Religion. Eds. Stewart Goetz and Charles Taliaferr.
• "Self-help on the go: Sketches of 'le bon David' and the good life". Review of Julian Baggini's The Great Guide: What David Hume can teach us about being human and living well, for the Times Literary Supplement (September 24, 2021).
• "Responsibility Skepticism and Strawson's Naturalism". [Review Essay on Pamela Hieronmyi, Freedom, Resentment and the Metaphysics of Morals] ; Ethics, 131.4 (2021), 754-776.
• “Hume’s Scepticism and the Problem of Atheism”. In P. Russell, Recasting Hume and Early Modern Philosophy: Selected Essays. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 303-339.
• "The Misuse of Morality"; Review of Grandstanding, by J. Tosi & B. Warmke, for the Times Literary Supplement. [April 2021]
• The Limits of Free Will: Replies to Bennett, Smith and Wallace, in Ethical Theory and Moral Practice.

• - - Introduction to Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion [Dialoger om naturlig religion]. Translated into Swedish by Jan Landgren. Nya Doxa: Nora (Sweden).
• - -"'True Religion' and Hume's Practical Atheism", In Sceptical Doubt and Disbelief in Modern European Thought: A New Pan-American Dialogue, V. Rosaleny & P. Smith, eds. Springer: Dordrecht. Pp. 191-225
• -- “Hume on Free Will”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: (Winter 2007 Edition; substantial revision May 2020), Edward N. Zalta (ed.),
• URL = < https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume-freewill/ >.
• -- "Vice Dressed as Virtue", AEON, May 2020

• • • • “Hume’s Optimism and Williams’ Pessimism”, in Ethics beyond the Limits: New Essays on Bernard Williams’ Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy. S. G. Chappell and M. van Ackeren, eds. Routledge: London. Pp. 37-52.

• "Bernard Williams: Ethics from a Human Point of View" -- in TLS "Footnotes to Plato". [December 2018]
• [Review of] Dennis C. Rasmussen, The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship that Shaped Modern Thought. For Rivista di Filosofia. 106.2 (2018), 485-492.
• “Free Will and Affirmation: Assessing Honderich’s Third Way”, in Ted Honderich on Consciousness, Determinism, and Humanity. G. Caruso, ed. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Pp. 159-79.
• [Review of] Hume’s Critique of Religion: Sick Men’s Dreams. Alan Bailey and Dan O’Brien. Philosophical Quarterly.

• “Free Will Pessimism”. Vitterhetsakademien Yearbook 2017/ Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities. Pp. 47-63.
• "Free Will Pessimism". In Oxford Studies in Agency and Responsibility, Volume 4, edited by David Shoemaker. Oxford University Press. Pp. 93-120.
• “Free Will and Moral Sense: Strawsonian Approaches”, in Meghan Griffith, Neal Levy, Kevin Timpe, eds. Routledge Companion to Free Will. Pp. 96-108.
• "The Limits of Tolerance", AEON. [August 2017]
• [Review of] Conversation and Responsibility, Michael McKenna. Philosophical Review, 126.2 (2017), 285-95.
• [Review of] Towards a Humean True Religion, Andrew Willis. For Journal of the History of Philosophy 55.1 (2017), 168-9.

• “Hume, Irreligion and the Myth of British Empiricism”, The Oxford Handbook of HUME, P. Russell, ed. Oxford University Press. Pp.109-37.
• Review of James Harris, Hume: An Intellectual Biography - in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (June 2016).

• “’Hume’s Lengthy Digression’: Free Will in the Treatise”, Hume’s Treatise: A Critical Guide, A. Butler & D. Ainslie, eds. Cambridge University Press. Pp. 230-51.

• “Responsibility, Naturalism and ‘the Morality System’”, Oxford Studies in Agency and Responsibility, D. Shoemaker, ed. Oxford University Press. Pp.184-204.
• “Causation, Cosmology and the Limits of Reason”, The Oxford Handbook of British Philosophy in the Eighteenth-Century, James Harris, ed. Oxford University Press. Pp.599-620.
• “Hume’s Anatomy of Virtue”, The Cambridge Companion to Virtue Ethics. Daniel Russell, ed. Cambridge University Press. Pp. 92-123.

• “Hume’s Legacy and the Idea of British Empiricism”, The Continuum Companion to David Hume, Alan Bailey and Dan O'Brien, eds. Continuum. Pp. 377-95.

• “Moral Sense and the Foundations of Responsibility”, The Oxford Handbook of Free Will, 2^nd ed., Robert Kane, ed. Oxford University Press. Pp. 199-220.
• “The Free Will Problem” [Hobbes/Bramhall debate]; invited contribution to The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy in Early Modern Europe, eds. Desmond Clarke and Catherine Wilson. Oxford University Press. Pp. 425- 444.

• “Selective Hard Compatibilism”, in Joseph Campbell, Michael O’Rourke and Harry Silverstein, eds., Action, Ethics and Responsibility: Topics in Contemporary Philosophy, Vol. 7. MIT Press. Pp. 149-73.
• [Review of] The Philosophers’ Quarrel: Rousseau, Hume, and the Limits of Human Understanding, by Robert Zaretsky and John T. Scott. For The Times Literary Supplement [19 November, 2010/ No. 5616, p.29]

• “Free Will, Art and Morality”, The Journal of Ethics, 12 (2008), 307-325.

• “Hume on Free Will”, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: (Winter 2007 Edition; revised September 2014 and May 2020), Edward N. Zalta (ed.),

• “Traktat Hume’a i problem cnotliwego ateizmu” [“Hume’s Treatise and the Problem of Virtuous Atheism”], Nowa Krytyka, 20/21 (2007), 333-380. Tomasz Sieczkowski, ed.; translation by Mateusz Oleksy and Tomasz Sieczkowski.

• “Hume’s Lucretian Mission: Is it Self-Refuting?”, Monist, 90 (2007). 182-199.

• “Moral Sense and Virtue in Hume’s Ethics”, in Tim Chappell, ed., Values and Virtues: Aristotelianism and Contemporary Ethics. Clarendon Press. Pp. 154-166.
• “Practical Reason and Motivational Scepticism”, in Heiner F. Klemme, Manfred Kuehn, Dieter Schönecker, eds., Moralische Motivation. Kant und die Alternativen. Kant-Forschungen 16.2006. VIII, 350 Seiten. (Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag. Pp. 287-296.
• [Chinese translation, in Xiangdong Xu, ed., Practical Reason, (Hangzhou: Zhejiang University Press, 2012).]

• “L’irreligione e lo spettatore imparziale nel sistema morale di Adam Smith” [Irreligion and the Impartial Spectator in Smith’s Moral System], translated by E. Lecaldano, Rivista di Filosofia , 3 (2005), 375-403.
• "Foreword" for Maureen Sie Justifying Blame: Why Free Will Matters and Why it Does Not. Value Inquiry Book Series. (Rodopi: Amsterdam & New York, 2005).
• "Hume on Religion", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: (Winter 2005 Edition; revised February 2013; and revised by Anders Kraal, 2017), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = < http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume-religion/ >

• • • • “Responsibility and the Condition of Moral Sense”, Philosophical Topics, 32 (2004), 287-305. [Special Issue on Agency, ed. J.M. Fischer]
      • “Butler’s ‘Future State’ and Hume’s ‘Guide of Life’”, Journal of the History of Philosophy, 42 (2004), 425-448.
      • “William Dudgeon”, New Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press: 2004).

• “The Material World and Natural Religion in Hume’s Treatise”, Archiv fur Geschichte der Philosophie, 85 (2003), 269-303.
• [Review of] Rupert Read and Kenneth Richmond, eds., The New Hume Debate: Journal of the History of Philosophy, 41 (2003), 132-134.

• Critical Notice of John M. Fischer and Mark Ravizza, Responsibility and Control, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 32 (2002), 587-606.
• “Pessimists, Pollyannas and the New Compatibilism”, in Robert Kane, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Free Will. Oxford University Press. Pp. 229-256.

• "Compatibilist-Fatalism", in Ton van den Beld, ed. Moral Responsibility and Ontology. Kluwer. Pp. 199-218.

• • • • "Smith on Moral Sentiment and Moral Luck", History of Philosophy Quarterly, 16 (1999), 37-58.
      • "William Dudgeon", in John Yolton, John V. Price, and John Stephens eds., Dictionary of Eighteenth Century Thought (Routledge & Thoemmes, 1999), 296-8.
      • [Review of] Samuel Clarke's A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God (1704), edited by Ezio Vailati: Ethics, 109 (1999), 942. [Book Note]

• • • • "Clarke's 'Almighty Space' and Hume's Treatise", Enlightenment and Dissent, 16 (1997), 83-113.
      • "Free Will", an article in Edward Barbanell and Don Garrett, eds., The Encyclopedia of Empiricism (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997), 107-111.
      • "Wishart, Baxter and Hume's Letter from a Gentleman", Hume Studies, 23 (1997), 245-276.

• • • • "Hume's Treatise and the Clarke-Collins Controversy", Hume Studies, 21 (1995), 95-115.
      • [Review of] J.J. MacIntosh and H.A. Meynell, Faith, Scepticism and Personal Identity: A Festschrift for Terence Penelhum: Hume Studies, 21 (1995), 351-54.

• "Epigram, Pantheists and Freethought in Hume's Treatise: A Study in Esoteric Communication", Journal of the History of Ideas, 54 (1993), 659-73.
• "Critical Notice of Annette Baier, A Progress of Sentiments: Reflections on Hume's Treatise", Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 23 (1993), 107-23.

• "Strawson's Way of Naturalizing Responsibility", Ethics, 101 (1992), 287-302.

• [Review of] John W. Danford's David Hume and the Problem of Reason: Recovering the Human Sciences: Canadian Philosophical Reviews, 11 (1991), 168-70.
• [Review of] Nicholas Capaldi's Hume's Place in Moral Philosophy, Philosophical Books, 32 (1991), 213-6.
• [Review of] Vincent Hope's Virtue by Consensus: Ethics, 101 (1991), 873-5.

• "Hume on Responsibility and Punishment", Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 20 (1990), 539-564.
• Reprinted in:
• (a) J. Dunn and I. Harris, eds., Hume: Great Political Thinkers, Section 1 (Edward Elgar: 1997).]
• 
  
• (b) Ken Mackinnon, ed., Hume and Law (Ashgate: 2012)
• "A Hobbist Tory: Johnson on Hume", Hume Studies, 16 (1990), 75-79.
• [Review of] Jean Hampton's Hobbes and the Social Contract Tradition: Journal of the History of Philosophy, 27 (1989), 620 - 622.

• "Causation, Compulsion and Compatibilism", American Philosophical Quarterly, 25 (1988), 313 - 321.
• “'Atheism' and the Title-Page of Hume's Treatise", Hume Studies, 14 (1988), 408 - 423.
• "Skepticism and Natural Religion in Hume's Treatise", Journal of the History of Ideas, 49 (1988), 247 - 265.
• [Review of] Antony Flew's David Hume: Philosopher of Moral Science: Philosophical Books, 29 (1988), 27 - 30.

• "Nozick, Need and Charity", Journal of Applied Philosophy, 4 (1987), 205 - 216.

• "Locke on Express and Tacit Consent: Misinterpretations and Inconsistencies", Political Theory, 14 (1986), 291- 306.

• [Review of] Robert Fogelin's Hume's Skepticism in the Treatise of Human Nature: Mind, 95 (1986), 392 - 396.

• "Hume's Treatise and Hobbes's The Elements of Law", Journal of the History of Ideas, 46 (1985), 51 - 64.

• "Hume's 'Reconciling Project': A Reply to Flew", Mind, 94 (1985), 587 - 590.
• [A reply to Anthony Flew, "Paul Russell on Hume's 'Reconciling Project'", Mind, 93 (1984), 587-8.]
• "Sorabji and the Dilemma of Determinism", Analysis, 44 (1984), 166 - 172.
• "Hume's 'Two Definitions' of Cause and the Ontology of 'Double Existence'", Hume Studies, 10 (1984), 1 - 25.

• "The Naturalism of Hume's 'Reconciling Project'", Mind, 92 (1983), 593-600.