What is the world made of and how do we fit into it?
That's the "big question" driving me forward. You might think it's the task of physics to answer such questions. But scientific theories do not wear their ontologies on their sleeves, nor do they explain how scientific inquiry is possible in the first place. I am seeking an account of "how things in the broadest possible sense of the term hang together in the broadest possible sense of the term"; a vision of reality which is both informed by science and includes the scientist. Without science, philosophy can drift away from the facts into fruitless speculation. Without philosophy, the scientist can lose sight of the whole and how they fit into it. Some facts are written across reality in letters too large for microscopes to see. That's why I pursue science and philosophy.
I'm William Simpson; a philosopher and scientist. I was born in Lincoln, a cathedral city in England, but now live in Scotland (or wherever my work happens to take me). I have a doctorate in philosophy from Cambridge, in which I put forward an ontology for quantum mechanics inspired by Aristotle's metaphysics, and I have a doctorate in physics from St Andrews, in which I studied the behaviour of sticky quantum mechanical forces. When I'm not philosophising about Life, the Universe and Everything, you may find me walking in the Highlands, or sketching in the Borders.