Thomas Crowther
Profile
I studied PPP at Wadham College, Oxford, and went on to complete an MPhil and PhD in Philosophy at King's College, London. My PhD supervisors were Mark Sainsbury and Jim Hopkins. I have previously taught at the University of Oxford, Birkbeck, and at Heythrop College, University of London.
I joined the Warwick Philosophy Department as Associate Professor in 2013. I am now Reader in Philosophy.
Research
My research is at the area of intersection of the philosophy of mind and metaphysics, with a particular emphasis on how consciousness and aspects of consciousness relate to time, and the role of temporal categories, such as ‘event’, ‘process’ and ‘state’ in understanding the mind.
In the philosophy of mind, my research primarily focusses on the links between perception and action, on the nature of the state of wakeful consciousness and the explanatory role that this state plays in understanding perception, agency, knowledge and self-awareness. I am involved in ongoing work on the psychology of addiction, and in understanding the role that states of consciousness can play in understanding the properties of agency in addiction. I also have a particular interest in the conceptual foundations of sleep science and am involved in ongoing research with a network of philosophers and psychologists with an interest in foundational questions about the nature of waking, sleep, somnambulism, dreaming, and trance and their interrelations.
In metaphysics, my research focuses on temporal ontology, specifically the nature of processes and their temporal properties, and the relations between processes, events, states and substances. My current research project focuses on philosophical questions about aspect. This project on aspect develops my research over the last decade in the philosophy of mind and metaphysics in a way that brings these different strands more closely together. The take-home message of this new project will be that it is not possible to do temporal ontology without doing philosophy of mind and action
I supervise postgraduate students working in the fields of Philosophy of Mind and Action, Epistemology, and Metaphysics, the Philosophy of Aristotle (specifically, Aristotle’s metaphysics and philosophy of mind and action). I welcome applications from potential research students working in any of those fields.
Teaching
At undergraduate level I teach the Metaphysics and Aristotle Honours-level modules, as well as an Introduction to Ancient Philosophy module for first years. At postgraduate level I teach seminars on Advanced Topics in Metaphysics and Epistemology, and Aristotle's Physics: Continuity, Infinity and Time.
Selected Publications
Books
2018. Perceptual Ephemera. Oxford, O.U.P. (co-edited with Clare Mac Cumhaill)
Papers
2025. ‘The Limits of Process Philosophy and the Primacy of Substance,’ in Bahoh, J., Genovese, S. and Cassini, M. (eds.) 21st Century Philosophy of Events: Beyond the Analytic/Continental Divide. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 265- 90.
2025. ‘Autobiographical Memory in Narratives of Alcoholism and Recovery,’ in Vanello, Daniel (ed.) Autobiographical Memory and Moral Agency: Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychology. London: Routledge. pp. 185- 212.
2020. ‘Temporal Ontology and Joint Action’. Inquiry. Published online 17 March. https://doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2020.1731592
2019. ‘Verbs, Times and Objects’. International Journal of Philosophical Studies, Volume 27, Issue 4, 475- 497. Published online 09 April. https://doi.org/10.1080/09672559.2019.1598102.
2018. ‘Experience, Dreaming and the Phenomenology of Wakeful Consciousness’. In Fiona Macpherson and Fabian Dorsch (eds.). Phenomenal Presence. Oxford, O.U.P.
2018. ‘In Touch with the Look of Solidity’. In Thomas Crowther and Clare Mac Cumhaill (eds.) Perceptual Ephemera. Oxford, O.U.P. pp. 260- 88
2018. ‘A Tour of the Ephemeral’ (co-authored with Clare Mac Cumhaill) In Thomas Crowther and Clare Mac Cumhaill (eds.) Perceptual Ephemera. Oxford, O.U.P. pp. 1- 30.
2018. ‘Processes as Continuants and Process as Stuff’. In Rowland Stout (ed.) Process, Action and Experience. Oxford, O.U.P.
2017. ‘Time in the Dream’ (co-authored with Matthew Soteriou). In I. Phillips (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Temporal Experience. London, Routledge.
2016. ‘Failures of Rationality and Self-Knowledge in Addiction’. In Gabriel Segal and Nick Heather (eds.) Addiction and Choice. Oxford, O.U.P.
2014. ‘The Perception of Activity’. In James Stazicker (ed.), Ratio, Vol. 27 (4), Special Edition: The Structure of Perceptual Experience, pp 439-461.
2011. ‘The Matter of Events’, The Review of Metaphysics, 65 (1) pp. 3-39.
2010. ‘The Agential Profile of Perceptual Experience’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 110 (2) pp. 219-242.
2009. ‘Watching, Sight and the Temporal Shape of Perceptual Activity’, The Philosophical Review, 118 (1) pp. 1-27.
2009. ‘Perceptual Activity and the Will’. In Lucy O'Brien and Matthew Soteriou (eds.) Mental Actions, (Oxford, O.U.P.) pp. 173-191.
2006. ‘Two Conceptions of Conceptualism and Nonconceptualism’, Erkenntnis, 65 pp. 245-276
