Bernard Berofsky

Bernard Berofsky

Research Interest

Metaphysics, especially free will, moral responsibility, autonomy, determinism, and causality

Professor | Columbia University

Bernard Berofsky (B. A. NYU, 1956, M.A., Columbia, 1959, Ph.D., Columbia, 1963) entered the study of philosophy in order to solve the free will problem and is dismayed that he is still working on it as he begins his career as Professor Emeritus after 38 years at Columbia. He has also taught at Vassar College, the University of Michigan, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Nature's Challenge to Free Will. Oxford University Press, forthcoming

Berofsky performs as a stage magician under the name of Sebastian, but has failed so far to find a magical way to turn his students into philosophers.

Selected Publications

2011. ‘Compatibilism Without Frankfurt: Dispositional Analyses of Free Will’. In Robert Kane (ed.), Handbook of Free Will, 2nd Ed. Oxford University Press.

2011. ‘Is Pathological Altruism Altruism?’ In Barbara Oakley, Ariel Knafo, Guruprasad Madhaven, David Sloan Wilson (eds.), Pathological Altruism, Oxford University Press.

2010. ‘Free Will and the Mind-Body Problem’. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 88 (1):1 –19.

2006. ‘Global Control and Freedom’. Philosophical Studies 131 (2):419-445.

2006. ‘The Myth of Source’. Acta Analytica 21 (4): 3-18.

2004. ‘Autonomy and Free Will’. In J. S. Taylor (ed.), Personal Autonomy: New Essays on Personal Autonomy and its Role in Contermporary Philosophy. Cambridge University Press.

2003. ‘ Classical Compatibilism: Not Dead Yet’. In Michael McKenna and David Widerker (eds.), Moral Responsibility and Alternative Possibilities. Ashgate Press.

2002. ‘Ifs, Cans, and Free Will: The Issues’. In Robert Kane (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Free Will. Oxford University Press.

2000. ‘Ultimate Rsponsibility in a Determined World’. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 60 (1):135-40.

1995.Liberation From Self: A Theory of Personal Autonomy. Cambridge University Press.