This volume contains a selection of papers concerning free will and moral responsibility. Among the topics covered, as they relate to these problems, are the challenge of skepticism; moral sentiment and moral capacity; necessity and the metaphysics of causation; practical reason; free will and art; fatalism and the limits of agency; and our metaphysical attitudes of optimism and pessimism.

Introduction Table of Contents Acknowledgements I. Free Will and Causal Relations 1. Sorabji and the Dilemma of Determinism [With an Addendum, 2016] 2. Causation, Compulsion and Compatibilism II. Responsibility, Skepticism and Moral Sentiment 3. Strawson's Way of Naturalizing Responsibility 4. Responsibility and the Condition of Moral Sense 5. Moral Sense and the Foundations of Responsibility 6. Responsibility, Naturalism and 'the Morality System III. Practical Reason, Art and Manipulation 7. Practical Reason and Motivational Skepticism 8. Free Will, Art and Morality 9. Selective Hard Compatibilism: Manipulation and Moral Standing IV. Pessimism and the Limits of Free Will 10. Compatibilist-Fatalism: Finitude, Pessimism and the Limits of Free Will 11. Pessimists, Pollyannas and the New Compatibilism 12. Free Will Pessimism List of related publications Index

"It was both a pleasure and a revelation to revisit these articles together as a group, and to see what a powerful and unified vision of the nature of human freedom and responsibility Russell has put forward over these many years. What comes out most clearly after sustained engagement with Russell's work is his deep humanity and his clear-eyed appreciation of what he takes to be our basic human predicament: namely, that we must see ourselves as free and morally responsible agents, even as we recognize the myriad ways in which luck and fate play an ineliminable role in shaping the moral quality of our lives." -- Angela Smith, Ethical Theory & Moral Practice "The Limits of Free Will is a marvelous collection of papers by Paul Russell. It is full of insightful and illuminating critiques, but it also provides readers with an interesting and distinctive position on free will and moral responsibility ... Russell's unique blend of pessimism and optimism is highly compelling and his arguments beautifully crafted, with great sensitivity to our deepest human concerns. The volume is enormously enlightening and will reward its readers many times over." -- Meghan Griffith, Ethics "The free will debate is notoriously deadlocked, and Russell's work thoughtfully opens up new areas of philosophical exploration. But more importantly, Russell's philosophical facing-up to our limits as natural beings embodies intellectual humility and humanity in equal measure. As a young scholar, I am especially grateful to have encountered his work." -- Robert Wallace, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice "What stands out especially about this collection is the way in which Russell marries matters of fate and luck with our conception of ourselves as agents more broadly beyond the moral realm ... The merits of this collection go well beyond being a valuable compendium of critical assessment of contemporary optimism and skepticism about moral responsibility. Russell harnesses decades of reflection on moral responsibility to construct a distinctive yet measured compatibilist alternative, one that acknowledges the limits of human control while upholding the dignity of our moral life." -- Robyn Repko Waller, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews "These are all uniformly excellent papers, beautifully written and offering a unique and important perspective on the topics of free will and moral responsibility." DLMichael McKenna, University of Arizona "Paul Russell's subtle, incisive, and deeply human essays have had enormous influence on work in agency and responsibility for going on three decades. One cannot understand the state of play in many of the wide range of topics in the field without grappling with Russell's sharp critical insights and deftly drawn positions." DLDavid Shoemaker, Tulane University "This is the Golden Age of free will philosophy. Paul Russell is a very significant participant in this, and moreover a philosopher with a distinct and rare voice. This volume will be very welcome in this respect, rightly positioning him as a central figure in the contemporary free will debate." DLSaul Smilansky, University of Haifa

Selling point: This collection takes up new themes and issues in moral theory and also develops an original and fresh compatibilist approach to the free will problem. Selling point: Brings together a number of papers that were published separately and links them together in a way that allows the reader to see and appreciate their relevance to each other and the overall unity of the contributions considered as a whole.

Paul Russell, Professor in Philosophy, University of British Columbia and Lund University. Paul Russell is Professor in Philosophy at the University of British Columbia and Lund University. His publications include Freedom and Moral Sentiment: Hume's Way of Naturalizing Responsibility (Oxford University Press, 1995); The Riddle of Hume's Treatise: Skepticism, Naturalism, and Irreligion (Oxford University Press, 2008); and editor of The Philosophy of Free Will (Oxford University, 2013).

Selling point: This collection takes up new themes and issues in moral theory and also develops an original and fresh compatibilist approach to the free will problem. Selling point: Brings together a number of papers that were published separately and links them together in a way that allows the reader to see and appreciate their relevance to each other and the overall unity of the contributions considered as a whole.