Alyssa Ney, Professor of Philosophy, Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich

Announcements

• The new volume Local Quantum Mechanics is now available for pre-order and will be released in October 2026.

• My ERC Advanced Grant Project MetaQ: The Nature of Quantum Reality will begin January 1, 2027. Links to job announcements for the postdoc and PhD positions will be posted here in the coming months.

• I will also soon be advertising a postdoc position as part of a John Templeton Foundation grant related to the physics and metaphysics of quantum open systems.

New work 

"Is the Universe Fundamentally a Density Matrix?" with Saakshi Dulani, forthcoming in British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.

"Branching (Almost) Everywhere and All At Once," to appear in Local Quantum Mechanics: Everett, Many Worlds, and Reality, Oxford University Press.

Publications (cv)(philpapers)

Books

• The Fundamentality of Physics. Oxford University Press, forthcoming.

• Local Quantum Mechanics: Everett, Many Worlds, and Reality. edited volume. Oxford University Press, 2026.

• The World in the Wave Function: A Metaphysics for Quantum Physics. Oxford University Press, 2021. Winner of the Patrick Suppes Prize from the American Philosophical Society.

  • Reviewed in [Philosophical Review] by David Wallace, [Mind] by James Read, [Philosophy of Science] by Mario Hubert, and [Analysis] by Tim Maudlin.

• Metaphysics: An Introduction. Second Edition. Routledge, 2023 (First Edition 2014).

  • Second Edition reviewed in [Teaching Philosophy] by Jeremiah Joven Joachin and Roshan Uttamachandani.

• The Wave Function: Essays in the Metaphysics of Quantum Mechanics. co-edited with David Z Albert. Oxford University Press, 2013.

  • Reviewed in [NDPR] by Jeff Barrett, [Philosophy of Science] by Craig Callender, and [Metascience] by Decio Krause.

Selected Articles

• "The Argument from Locality for Many Worlds Quantum Mechanics," Journal of Philosophy, December 2025.

• "Do Our Observations Make Reality Happen?" Nature. June 2025.

• "Three Arguments for Wave Function Realism," European Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 2023.

• "From Quantum Entanglement to Spatiotemporal Distance," Philosophy Beyond Spacetime, Oxford University Press, 2021.

• "The Fundamentality of Physics: Completeness or Maximality?" Oxford Studies in Metaphysics Vol.12, 2020.

• "Mind,"Handbook of Metaphysical Grounding, Routledge, 2020.

• "Are the Questions of Metaphysics More Fundamental Than Those of Science?" Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 2020.

• "Separability, Locality, and Higher Dimensions in Quantum Mechanics," Current Controversies in Philosophy of Science, Routledge, 2020.

• "Finding the World in the Wave Function: Some Strategies for Solving the Macro-object Problem," Synthese, 2020.

• "Wave Function Realism in a Relativistic Setting," The Foundation of Reality, Oxford University Press, 2020.

• "On Phenomenal Functionalism about the Properties of Virtual and Non-virtual Objects," Disputatio, 2019.

• "The Politics of Fundamentality," What is Fundamental? Springer, 2019.

• "Locality and Wave Function Realism," Quantum Worlds, Cambridge University Press, 2019.

• "Physicalism, Not Scientism," in Scientism: Prospects and Problems, Oxford University Press, 2018.

• "Microphysical Causation and the Case for Physicalism," Analytic Philosophy, 2016.

• "Grounding in the Philosophy of Mind: A Defense," in Scientific Composition and Metaphysical Ground, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

• "Fundamental Physical Ontologies and the Constraint of Empirical Coherence," Synthese, 2015.

• "A Physicalist Critique of Russellian Monism," in Consciousness in the Physical World, Oxford University Press, 2015.

• "Does An Adequate Physical Theory Demand a Primitive Ontology?" with Kathryn Phillips. Philosophy of Science, 2013.

• "The Causal Contribution of Mental Events," in New Perspectives on Type Identity, Cambridge University Press, 2012.

• "The Status of Our Ordinary Three Dimensions in a Quantum Universe." Nous, 2012.

• "Neo-Positivist Metaphysics." Philosophical Studies. 2012.

• "Physical Causation and Difference-making." British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 2009.

• "Defining Physicalism," Philosophy Compass, 2008.

• "Physicalism as an Attitude," Philosophical Studies, 2008.

• "Can An Appeal to Constitution Solve the Exclusion Problem?" Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 2007.

• "Physicalism and Our Knowledge of Intrinsic Properties," Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 2007.

Upcoming Talks

August 2026: Keynote Lecture, European Congress for Analytic Philosophy, Madrid

September 2026: Keynote Lecture, Italian Metaphysics Society, Venice

November 2026: Colloquium, University of Salzburg

November 2026: Symposium on 50 Years of the Participatory Universe, Philosophy of Science Association Meeting, San Diego

December 2026: Colloquium, University of Bern