Staff profile

Administrative Roles

I am on research leave during the 2022/23 academic year.

Office Hours

I am on reseach leave during the 2022/23 academic year. 

Research Interests

My core philosophical interests lie in the metaphysics of science and I publish mainly on the topics of dispositions, laws, causation and the problem of universals. I argue that properties are metaphysically fundamental and can help to explain many other metaphysical phenomena such as causation, chance, dispositions, laws, modality, and natural kinds. I am a Platonic realist about properties and my recent work focuses on how to motivate a Platonic metaphysics by reflecting on science and modality. This work is published in my 2022 monograph Putting Properties First: A Platonic Metaphysics for Natural Modality (Oxford: Oxford University Press). This research was supported by a Mind Association Research Fellowship. 

• Metaphysics (especially the topics of essence, identity and individuation, modality, ontological dependence, properties and substance)
• Metaphysics of Science (especially the topics of causation, chance, dispositions, laws and natural kinds)

• Mind, Language and Metaphysics
• Science, Medicine and Society

• 2015: Scientific Platonism: A Study in the Metaphysics of Science(£19347.64 from MIND)

Authored book

• Tugby, Matthew (2022). Putting Properties First: A Platonic Metaphysics for Natural Modality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Chapter in book

• Alvarado, José Tomás & Tugby, Matthew (2021). A Problem for Natural-Kind Essentialism and Formal Causes. In Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Formal Causation. Jansen, Ludger & Sandstad, Petter Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge. 201-221.
• Tugby, Matthew (2020). Atoms as Universals. In Atomism in Philosophy: A History from Antiquity to the Present. Zilioli, Ugo London: Bloomsbury Academic. 387-399.
• Tugby, Matthew (2020). Organic Powers. In Dispositionalism: Perspectives from Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Science. Meincke, Anne Sophie Cham: Springer. 417: 213-238.
• Hamilton, Andy, Macarthur, David, Squires, Roger, Tugby, Matthew & Wiseman, Rachael (2019). Dialogue on Rhythm: Entrainment and the Dynamic Thesis. In The Philosophy of Rhythm: Aesthetics, Music, Poetics. Cheyne, Peter, Hamilton, Andy & Paddison, Max New York: Oxford University Press. 15-42.
• Tugby, Matthew (2016). What Are Dispositional Properties? In Reality Making. Jago, Mark Oxford: Oxford University Press. 75-98.
• Tugby, Matthew (2016). Mirage Realism Revisited. In Metaphysics and Scientific Realism: Essays in Honour of David Malet Armstrong. Calemi, Francesco F. Berlin: De Gruyter. 9: 13-30.
• Mumford, Stephen & Tugby, Matthew (2013). What Is the Metaphysics of Science? In Metaphysics and Science. Mumford, Stephen & Tugby, Matthew Oxford: Oxford University Press. 3-28.
• Tugby, Matthew (2012). The Metaphysics of Pan-dispositionalism. In Properties, Powers and Structures: Issues in the Metaphysics of Realism. Bird, Alexander, Ellis, Brian & Sankey, Howard Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. 165-179.

Edited book

• Mumford, Stephen & Tugby, Matthew (2013). Metaphysics and Science. Mind Association Occasional Series. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Journal Article

• Tugby, Matthew (2022). Dispositional realism without dispositional essences. Synthese 200(3): 222.
• Tugby, Matthew (2022). The Laws of Modality. Philosophical Studies 179(8): 2597-2618.
• Tugby, Matthew (2021). Grounding theories of powers. Synthese 198(12): 11187-11216.
• Tugby, M (2021). Abduction and the Scientific Realist Case for Properties. Grazer Philosophische Studien 98(1): 123-145.
• Giannini, Giacomo & Tugby, Matthew (2020). Potentiality: actualism minus naturalism equals platonism. Philosophical Inquiries 8(1): 117-140.
• Tugby, Matthew (2018). Modal Platonism and the Problem of Negativity. Erkenntnis 83(3): 465-476.
• Tugby, Matthew (2017). Power Worlds and the Problem of Individuation. American Philosophical Quarterly 54(3): 269-281.
• Tugby, Matthew (2017). The Problem of Retention. Synthese 194(6): 2053-2075.
• Tugby, Matthew (2016). On the Reality of Intrinsically Finkable Dispositions. Philosophia 44(2): 623-631.
• Tugby, M. (2016). Universals, Laws, and Governance. Philosophical Studies 173(5): 1147-1163.
• Tugby, Matthew (2015). The Alien Paradox. Analysis 75(1): 28-37.
• Tugby, Matthew (2014). Categoricalism, Dispositionalism, and the Epistemology of Properties. Synthese 191(6): 1147-1162.
• Tugby, Matthew (2013). Platonic Dispositionalism. Mind 122(486): 451-480.
• Tugby, Matthew (2013). Causal Nominalism and the One Over Many Problem. Analysis 73(3): 455-462.
• Tugby, Matthew (2013). Graph-theoretic Models of Dispositional Structures. International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 27(1): 23-39.
• Tugby, M. (2013). Nomic Necessity for Platonists. Thought: A Journal of Philosophy 2(4): 324-331.
• Tugby, Matthew (2012). Rescuing Dispositionalism from the Ultimate Problem: Reply to Barker and Smart. Analysis 72(4): 723-731.
• Tugby, Matthew (2010). Simultaneity in Dispositional Interaction? Ratio 23(3): 322-338.