My research is focused on an area best described as the metaphysics of science. I am interested in the basic metaphysical concepts that we use to describe the workings of the world, such as causation, laws of nature, properties and possibility. Fortunately, I think there is a single way of unifying and explaining these items; namely by adopting an ontology of real dispositions or powers. Most of my professional work has been devoted to developing this ontology. I have other philosophical interests, however. I currently have a growing interest in aesthetics, which I gained from working in philosophy of sport. I have published on a variety of other subjects, from philosophy of religion to social philosophy.

My next planned book is Metaphysics: A Very Short Introduction for Oxford University Press. After that, I expect to write A Book About Nothing, which will look at various problems concerning absences and lacks and will warn against reification of nothingness in order to solve those problems. Before I die, I would like to write a big book called Against Empiricism. I prefer writing books to writing articles.


Major Funded Research Projects

I am involved in four currently funded research projects. They are:

Causation in Science: an interdisciplinary study of causal processes (CauSci). This is a four-year project, which began on 1 January 2011, funded by the Norwegian Council for Research. Rani Lill Anjum is the manager of the project, which is based at UMB - the Norwegian University of Life Science. I am visiting professor on the project, which means I will be attending all the workshops and conferences as well as visiting UMB regularly. The project has emerged from Anjum's previous postdoctoral project in which she was based in Nottingham and during which we wrote Getting Causes from Powers. The project will apply the theory of causation to four key sciences: physics, biology, psychology and social science.

Dispositions, Holism and Agency is a three-year project starting in 2011 with Principal Investigator Manuel de Pinedo Garcia at the University of Granada. I am the visiting researcher on this project, which means I will attend the conferences and workshops. I have been a regular visitor to the University of Granada for the past five years and have come to love the city and I always enjoy the philosophy. The project is funded by the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation.

 

Powers and the Identity of Agents is a project funded by the Austrian Science Fund under the directorship of Edmund Runggaldier at the Unviersity of Innsbruck.The project began in 2011 and will last three years, I am a cooperation partner and will be involved in the programme of conferences.

Power Structuralism in Ancient Ontologies. This is a five-year project managed by Anna Marmodoro at Oxford University and funded by the European Research Council. I am on the project's International Advisory Board.

 

I am additionally involved in other projects that still await funding

Latest news

CauSci newletter gives details of the project and carries a brief interview with me.

Watching Sport: Aesthetics, Ethics and Emotion, is due for publication on August 29th 2011.

With Rani Lill Anjum: Getting Causes from Powers, is scheduled to be published in September 2011.