Alyssa Ney, Professor of Philosophy, UC Davis

Office              2283 Social Sciences and Humanities

Email               aney@ucdavis.edu

Hours              by appointment 

Research Areas

Metaphysics, Philosophy of Physics, Philosophy of Mind, General Philosophy of Science

Biography

I am Professor of Philosophy and Philosophy Graduate Advisor at the University of California, Davis, where I have taught since July 2015. I received my MA and PhD in Philosophy from Brown University, my MS in Physics from UC Davis, and my BS in Physics and Philosophy from Tulane University. Beginning July 2024, I will be leaving UC Davis to take the Chair in Metaphysics at Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München.

I am Associate Editor at The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science and past-President of the Society for the Metaphysics of Science. My research focuses primarily on fundamentality, the unity of science, and the interpretation of quantum theories. 

I am working on two large projects at the moment. First, I am writing a book on the fundamentality of physics, arguing for an interpretation of the claim that physics is metaphysically fundamental. Second, I am editing a collection of papers on the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. The volume more specifically addresses the issue of how adopting the many worlds interpretation may allow one to avoid non-locality or "spooky action at a distance."

The second edition of my metaphysics textbook with Routledge is now available, and contains new chapters on fundamentality and grounding, natural and social kinds (including a section on social construction), and the metaphysics of race and gender. The new edition also includes new sections on metaphysical (ontic) vagueness and, in the free will chapter, on free will and neuroscience and manipulation arguments. Links to my most recent articles can be found below. 

This Spring and Summer 2024, I will be in residence at the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP) at the Ludwig Maximilians Universität München (LMU-Munich), finishing my book on the fundamentality of physics with financial support from a Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.