Explanation has both a subjective aspect and an objective aspect - it is partly about us, and partly about the world. As such it offers a tempting route into questions about the nature of reality and our access to it. I am interested in connections between explanation and metaphysics, and attempts to use facts about explanation as a guide to facts about metaphysics.
Some of my work on this theme is critical, in that I show that certain attempts to use explanation as a guide to metaphysics fail. Some is constructive, in that I develop paths from explanation to metaphysics in light of these critical insights.
Connections between explanation and metaphysics are particularly salient in social metaphysics and I am working on these issues in an in-progress book, The Foundations of Social Metaphysics. In 2023-4 this research was supported by a residential fellowship at the National Humanities Center.
I am a member of the JHU Foundations of Mind Group
Some of my work on this theme is critical, in that I show that certain attempts to use explanation as a guide to metaphysics fail. Some is constructive, in that I develop paths from explanation to metaphysics in light of these critical insights.
Connections between explanation and metaphysics are particularly salient in social metaphysics and I am working on these issues in an in-progress book, The Foundations of Social Metaphysics. In 2023-4 this research was supported by a residential fellowship at the National Humanities Center.
I am a member of the JHU Foundations of Mind Group
Work in Progress/Under review: Book
The Foundations of Social Metaphysics.
Work in Progress/Under review: Papers
An articulation and defense of an account of substantivity based on explanatory power.
A critical exploration of social essentialism.
An articulation and defense of a metaphysics of prefiguration.
A defense of the view that social phenomena are "mad", and discussion of the challenges this generates for analytic social metaphysics.
Published Work
“A Dormitive Virtue Puzzle.” (forthcoming) In Levels of Explanation, edited by Alastair Wilson and Katie Richardson. Oxford University Press.
Penultimate draft
"Naturalness: Abundant and Sparse Properties." (2024) Routledge Handbook on Properties, edited by Anna-Sofia Maurin and Anthony Fisher, Routledge.
Penultimate draft
"Substantive Social Metaphysics." (2023) Philosophers' Imprint 23(18): 1-18
"Explanation and the Right to Explanation." (2023) Journal of the American Philosophical Association 1-16. doi:10.1017/apa.2023.7
Penultimate draft, "New Work in Philosophy" post
"Explanatory Distance." (2023) British Journal for the Philosophy of Science https://doi.org/10.1086/714788
BJPS "Short Read", Selected for BJPS Editors' Choice.
"Power Emergentism and the Collapse Problem." (2022) Philosophy of Science 89(2): 302-318
Penultimate draft
"Backing Without Realism." (2020) Erkenntnis https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-020-00249-w
Penultimate draft
"Social Categories in Context." (2020) Journal of the American Philosophical Association 6(2): 171-187
Penultimate draft
"How to Make the Case for Brute Facts." (2018) in Brute Facts, edited by Elly Vintiadis and Constantinos Mekios, Oxford University Press.
Penultimate draft
"Against Explanatory Realism." (2018) Philosophical Studies 175 (1):197-219
Penultimate draft
“Explanatory Emergence as a Guide to Metaphysical Structure.” (2017) Philosophica 91: 15-48
"Only Explanation Can Reinflate Emergence." (2017) The Philosophical Quarterly, 68 (271): 385–394
Penultimate Draft
"Groups and Oppression." (2016) Hypatia 31 (3): 520–536
Penultimate draft
"Explanation and the Explanatory Gap." (2016) Acta Analytica 31 (1): 77-88
Penultimate draft
"Naturalness in Context." (2016) Inquiry. 59 (4): 319-342
Penultimate draft
"Collapsing Emergence." (2015) The Philosophical Quarterly 65 (271): 732-753
Penultimate draft
"An Explication of Emergence." (2015) Philosophical Studies 172 (3)653-669
Penultimate draft
Reviews
Review of Jessica Wilson's Metaphysical Emergence (2023) Australasian Journal of Philosophy.
Review of Carl Gillett's Reduction and Emergence in Science and Philosophy (2017) British Journal for the Philosophy of Science Review of Books.
The Foundations of Social Metaphysics.
Work in Progress/Under review: Papers
An articulation and defense of an account of substantivity based on explanatory power.
A critical exploration of social essentialism.
An articulation and defense of a metaphysics of prefiguration.
A defense of the view that social phenomena are "mad", and discussion of the challenges this generates for analytic social metaphysics.
Published Work
“A Dormitive Virtue Puzzle.” (forthcoming) In Levels of Explanation, edited by Alastair Wilson and Katie Richardson. Oxford University Press.
Penultimate draft
"Naturalness: Abundant and Sparse Properties." (2024) Routledge Handbook on Properties, edited by Anna-Sofia Maurin and Anthony Fisher, Routledge.
Penultimate draft
"Substantive Social Metaphysics." (2023) Philosophers' Imprint 23(18): 1-18
"Explanation and the Right to Explanation." (2023) Journal of the American Philosophical Association 1-16. doi:10.1017/apa.2023.7
Penultimate draft, "New Work in Philosophy" post
"Explanatory Distance." (2023) British Journal for the Philosophy of Science https://doi.org/10.1086/714788
BJPS "Short Read", Selected for BJPS Editors' Choice.
"Power Emergentism and the Collapse Problem." (2022) Philosophy of Science 89(2): 302-318
Penultimate draft
"Backing Without Realism." (2020) Erkenntnis https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-020-00249-w
Penultimate draft
"Social Categories in Context." (2020) Journal of the American Philosophical Association 6(2): 171-187
Penultimate draft
"How to Make the Case for Brute Facts." (2018) in Brute Facts, edited by Elly Vintiadis and Constantinos Mekios, Oxford University Press.
Penultimate draft
"Against Explanatory Realism." (2018) Philosophical Studies 175 (1):197-219
Penultimate draft
“Explanatory Emergence as a Guide to Metaphysical Structure.” (2017) Philosophica 91: 15-48
"Only Explanation Can Reinflate Emergence." (2017) The Philosophical Quarterly, 68 (271): 385–394
Penultimate Draft
"Groups and Oppression." (2016) Hypatia 31 (3): 520–536
Penultimate draft
"Explanation and the Explanatory Gap." (2016) Acta Analytica 31 (1): 77-88
Penultimate draft
"Naturalness in Context." (2016) Inquiry. 59 (4): 319-342
Penultimate draft
"Collapsing Emergence." (2015) The Philosophical Quarterly 65 (271): 732-753
Penultimate draft
"An Explication of Emergence." (2015) Philosophical Studies 172 (3)653-669
Penultimate draft
Reviews
Review of Jessica Wilson's Metaphysical Emergence (2023) Australasian Journal of Philosophy.
Review of Carl Gillett's Reduction and Emergence in Science and Philosophy (2017) British Journal for the Philosophy of Science Review of Books.