Theology & Philosophy

Liberty, Responsibility, and Moral Value in David Hume, Thomas Reid, and Samuel Johnson

ABSTRACT

This conference focused on Hume’s and Reid’s sharply opposed accounts of responsibility for action, moral motivation, and moral judgment, and also looked at Johnson’s views on free will, the nature of virtue, and the origin of evil.

READING LIST

Conference Readings

Boswell, James. Boswell's Life of Johnson: Together with Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, and Johnson's Diary of a Journey to North Wales. Edited by George Birkbeck Hill. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971.

Chisholm, Roderick, “Human Freedom and the Self” In Free Will, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. 26-37.

Hume, David. Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975.

Johnson, Samuel. Samuel Johnson (The Oxford Authors). Edited by Donald Greene. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.

Reid, Thomas. Essays on the Active Powers of Man. London: Printed for John Bell, and G. G. J. & J. Robinson, 1788.

Strawson, Galen, “The Impossibility of Moral Responsibility” In Free Will, edited by Gary Watson, 212-228. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.