I'm a philosopher of science at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. I work on various philosophical problems concerning time, causation and explanation, particularly what it means for time to have a direction. I've previously held postdoctoral research fellowships at the University of Queensland's School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, and the University of Sydney's Centre for Time. I was awarded my PhD in Philosophy by the University of Bristol for my thesis Towards a C Theory of Time. You'll find links to non-paywalled versions of all my published articles on this page.
Research
Teaching
At Cambridge I am available to supervise Philosophy and HPS Part II dissertations and HPSM MPhil essays in the following areas: philosophy of physics; metaphysics of science; scientific explanation; realism and antirealism; laws of nature; time; causation.
In the 2020-2021 year at Cambridge I am running the following courses:Reichenbach's The Direction of Time.
Evidence, Explanation and Models. (With Marta Halina)
Philosophy of Psychiatry.
The Metaphysics of Physics.
Space, Time & Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Physics.
In the 2020-2021 year at Cambridge I am running the following courses:
Media
A talk from 2018 on my C theory of time at the London School of Economics.
Misc.
My Erdös number is 5: Erdös→Anderson→Binmore→Paternotte→Ivanova→Me.
Had I been less interested in counterfactuals, I'd probably make my living as a drummer.
I'm happily married to this fellow philosopher, and spend most of my time figuring how to keep our little one entertained.
Had I been less interested in counterfactuals, I'd probably make my living as a drummer.
I'm happily married to this fellow philosopher, and spend most of my time figuring how to keep our little one entertained.
Publications
Journal Articles
- 2020. C-Theories of Time: On the adirectionality of time
Philosophy Compass [preprint] - 2020. Causation and Time Reversal
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science [preprint] - 2020. Explaining Temporal Qualia
European Journal for Philosophy of Science [preprint] - 2016. Review of Mathias Frisch’s Causal Reasoning in Physics
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science [preprint] - 2015. Conventional Principles in Science: On
the foundations and development of the relativized a priori [With M. Ivanova]
Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics [preprint] - 2015.
Temporal Experience, Temporal Passage and the Cognitive Sciences [With S. Baron, J. Cusbert, M. Kon & K. Miller]
Philosophy Compass - 2015. Review of Tim Maudlin’s Philosophy of Physics: Space and Time
Philosophy in Review [preprint] - 2013. A Relic of a Bygone Age? Causation, Time Symmetry and the Directionality Argument [With
A. Reutlinger]
Erkenntnis [preprint] - 2012. On A- and B-Theoretic Elements of Branching Spacetimes
Synthese [preprint] - 2020. Methods in Science and Metaphysics. [With M. Ivanova]
In Routledge Handbook of Metametaphysics, ed. Ricki Bliss & J.T.M. Miller. [link to book] - 2019. The ABC of Time. Aeon magazine.
- 2014. Causation, Time Symmetry and Russell’s Directionality Argument.
- 2015. Conventional Principles in Science: On the foundations and development of the relativized a priori [With M. Ivanova]
Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics - 2013. Towards a C Theory of Time: An Appraisal of the Physics and Metaphysics of Time Direction. University of Bristol.
- The C Theory of Time.
- Do we need to explain initial conditions?
- Indeterminism and the C theory
- Why the passage of time is not an illusion
- Explaining Temporal Qualia.
- Causation and Time Reversal.
- Causal Realism in Physics.
- Causality and Retrodiction in Quantum Mechanics.
- 'Initial' Conditions and the Direction of Time.
- Time: Inside and Out.
- Supertemporal Ontology and the 'Triviality' Problem.
- Explaining Time and Time Explaining.
- Does time have a direction?
- Difference-Making and the Direction of Time.
- Non-Reductive Naturalism about Time Direction?
- On Some Problems with A- and B-Theoretic Models of Branching Spacetime.
- Towards a C Theory of Time.
Book Chapters
Popular Articles
Edited Volumes
PhD Thesis
Talks
Upcoming
- TBA