Arché: Philosophical Research Centre

08/01/2026

🔔 Reminder: Online Workshop on Metaphysical Building 🔔

The University of Tennessee Southern School of Arts and Humanities and the Arché Philosophical Research Centre at the University of St Andrews would like to remind you of the upcoming two-day online workshop on metaphysical building.

📅 16–17 January
⏰ 14:55 GMT
💻 Online (Microsoft Teams)

Speakers:

* Shieva Kleinschmidt (University of Southern California)
* Paul Audi (University of Rochester)
* Karen Bennett (Rutgers University)
* Peter van Inwagen (University of Notre Dame)
* Nathan Wildman (Tilburg University)

Registration is still open. For details, please visit:

👉 https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/arche/event/workshop-on-metaphysical-building/?fbclid=IwY2xjawPMrodleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETBaZ0Q3dm5jT1BiamRFOFZOc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHj-dfze1EkfETZJkC8CQ3qEqXsdHuo7ME8YmFio9uxuc1QYbx5S56-XEFjNd_aem_BcoK8K9FEKueVe9-krQbVw

The workshop is supported by Aaron J. Cotnoir’s EPSRC-funded project Instruments of Unity: The Many Ways of Being One.

19/12/2025

The University of Tennessee Southern’s School of Arts and Humanities and the University of St Andrews’ Arché Philosophical Research Centre are pleased to announce a two-day online workshop on metaphysical building.

📅 16–17 January
⏰ 14:55 GMT
💻 Online (Microsoft Teams)

Speakers:

• Shieva Kleinschmidt (University of Southern California)
• Paul Audi (University of Rochester)
• Karen Bennett (Rutgers University)
• Peter van Inwagen (University of Notre Dame)
• Nathan Wildman (Tilburg University)

For registration details and further information, please visit:

👉 https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/arche/event/workshop-on-metaphysical-building/

This workshop is supported by Aaron J. Cotnoir’s EPSRC-funded project Instruments of Unity: The Many Ways of Being One.

10/10/2025

The first episode of the new podcast Ping Pong Philosophy is out – and it features our very own Greg Restall!

You can watch the episode right here, or listen to it on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/112kP85GR67OonNzivAOFr?si=4KprnWI0SNO68apfiWGvVQ

In this short chat, Greg talks about some of the key themes of his work in philosophical logic – including proof-theoretic semantics and logical pluralism.

You can also follow Ping Pong Philosophy on social media:
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pingpongphilosophy/
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/?_t=ZS-8vq6lmaEY3r&_r=1
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/
• BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/pingpongphilosophy.bsky.social

08/07/2025

Christopher Masterman’s paper ‘Can we repudiate ontology altogether?’ has been accepted for publication in Noûs.

This paper was supported by A. J. Cotnoir’s UKRI Frontier Research Grant for the project 'Instruments of Unity: The Many Ways of Being One'.

Link:

15/05/2025

Come and join us for Arché's Crispin Wright Workshop. Please find below all the details about the event:

Dates: 27 May, 9:00 a.m. – 29 May, 4:00 p.m.

Location: University of St Andrews – St Mary's College: T201 – Lecture Room 1

Speakers:

Tuesday 27 May — Vagueness
∙Robbie Williams (Leeds)
∙Bahram Assadian (Leeds)
∙Diana Raffman (Toronto)
∙Patrick Greenough (St Andrews)
∙Roy Cook (Minnesota)
∙Crispin Wright (Stirling)

Wednesday 28 May — ‘Frege’s Conception of Numbers as Objects’ revisited
∙Michael Potter (Cambridge)
∙Bruno Jacinto (Lisbon)
∙Robert May (UC Davis)
∙Agustin Rayo (MIT)
∙Rachel Boddy and Andrea Sereni (Pavia)
∙Richard K. Heck (Brown)

Thursday, 29 May — Epistemology
∙ ‘Frege’s Conception of Numbers as Objects’ @40 – Round table with Michael Beaney (Aberdeen), William Stirton, and Peter Sullivan (Stirling)
∙Sven Rosenkranz (Barcelona)
∙Claire Field (Zurich)
∙Paul Boghossian (NYU)

To register for in-person attendance: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/standrewsuniversity/1692862?

For the event's full programme and further details, please visit the official event page: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/arche/event/crispin-wright-workshop/

Sponsor: Scots Philosophical Association

07/05/2025

Metaphysical Indeterminacy Conference
17-18 June 2025
School V, United College, St Salvator's Quad, St Andrews

Event description
Might reality itself be indeterminate? And if so, how can we coherently theorise about it? This conference seeks to bring together researchers interested in this emerging topic and be an occasion to widen and deepen the debate around it. To reflect the interdisciplinary interest in this topic, the conference will feature contributions from traditional metaphysics, social ontology and science-informed metaphysics.

Speakers:
King Fung Kelvin Chan (University of Aberdeen)
Aaron J Cotnoir (University of St Andrews)
George Darby (Oxford Brookes University)
Maureen Donnelly (University at Buffalo)
Kamil Furman (Jagiellonian University)
Will Moorfoot (University of Southampton)
Kevin Richardson (Duke University)
Alessandro Torza (University of Parma)
Robert G. Williams (University of Leeds)

For the full conference program, please check the official webpage of the conference.

Registration
The conference will be hybrid, so there is an option for both online and in-person attendance. Participation is free, but registration is required. Please register at the following link: Online registration for Metaphysical Indeterminacy Conference. Deadline for registration: 20th May 2025.

For further info, please send an email to [email protected] or [email protected].

15/02/2025

Metaphysical Indeterminacy Conference
University of St Andrews, 17-18 June 2025

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Event description:

Might reality itself be indeterminate? And if so, how can we coherently theorise about it? This conference seeks to bring together researchers interested in this emerging topic and be an occasion to widen and deepen the debate around it. To reflect the interdisciplinary interest in this topic, the conference will feature contributions from traditional metaphysics, social metaphysics, and science-informed metaphysics.

Confirmed speakers:

Aaron J. Cotnoir (University of St Andrews)
George Darby (Oxford Brookes University)
Maureen Donnelly (University at Buffalo)
Kevin Richardson (Duke University)
Alessandro Torza (University of Parma)
J. Robert G. Williams (University of Leeds)


Call for abstracts:

We invite submission of extended abstracts (up to 1,000 words excluding references) addressing issues related to metaphysical indeterminacy and suitable for presentations of approximately 30 minutes. Submissions may fall within any conference stream (traditional, social, and science-informed metaphysics) but may also be interdisciplinary. Proposals engaging with structural issues, adopting new formal approaches, or suggesting novel solutions to standard objections to metaphysical indeterminacy are particularly welcome. We strongly encourage submissions from members of traditionally underrepresented groups.

Please send a suitably anonymised abstract and a coversheet to [email protected] by March 15th, 2025. The coversheet should include your name, institutional affiliation, the title of the abstract and 4-6 keywords. Please also state if you identify as a member of an underrepresented group.

We will notify successful applicants by April 15th. Analysis bursaries (covering up to 50% of the accommodation and subsistence expenses) will be awarded to successful graduate or recently graduated applicants. Additionally, we are working towards the possibility of a travel grant.

For more information, you can visit the official webpage of the conference or send an email to [email protected].

Official webpage: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/arche/event/metaphysics-logic-conference-metaphysical-indeterminacy/

10/02/2025

Call for papers for the 14th Arché Graduate Conference at the University of St Andrews.

20 & 21 October 2025

Deadline for Submission: 7 April 2025
Notification of Acceptance: 7 May 2025
Submit to: [email protected]

Length of Abstract: 250 words
Keywords: 4-6 words
Length of Paper: 4,000 words

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The Arché Philosophical Research Centre at the University of St Andrews is pleased to announce the 14th Arché Graduate Conference. The conference will be held on 20 & 21 October 2025 and is open to all graduate students. We welcome submissions from underrepresented groups in philosophy. The conference will consist of two invited keynote speakers (TBA) and eight graduate student speakers. Submissions are welcome from topics that fall into the research areas of Arché. These include epistemology, philosophy of language, philosophical logic, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and feminist and social theory.

Submissions should include an abstract (250 words max.), four to six keywords, and a paper no longer than 4,000 words (including foot- and endnotes; excluding bibliography). Papers should be suitable for presentations of around 40 minutes; must be authored (or co-authored) by current graduate students (limit to one submission per author); and be suitable for blind review. The deadline for submission is 7 April. Accepted applicants will be notified by 7 May. All submissions to be sent to [email protected]

Accepted speakers will be offered accommodation and may be offered a bursary for travel. Details to follow.

Further questions can be sent to the above email address. We look forward to your submissions!

The Arché Philosophical Research Centre at the University of St Andrews is pleased to announce the 14th Arché Graduate Conference. The conference will be held on 20 & 21 October 2025 and is open to all graduate students (excluding current St Andrews students). The conference will consist of two in...

13/11/2024

Congratulations to Dr. Andrea Oliani, who passed his PhD viva with no corrections! 🎉

04/11/2024

Aybüke Özgün and Aaron Cotnoir's article ‘Imagination, Mereotopology, and Topic Expansion’ is forthcoming in The Review of Symbolic Logic.

This paper was supported by Arché's Unity Project.

Instruments of Unity: the Many Ways of Being One is an EPSRC Research Grant, from the Frontier Research Guarantee with funding of £1.4M. The grant funds a five-year research project from January 2024 through January 2029, employing three postdocs and including a 3.5 year PhD studentship, led by PI ...

28/10/2024

Jorren Dykstra's paper ‘What is the tertiary norm of belief?’ has been published in Analysis.

Abstract. Timothy Williamson (in ‘Justifications, excuses, and sceptical scenarios’) distinguishes three kinds of norm for belief, which he calls ‘primary’

28/10/2024

Walter Segrave's 'Insolubles', edited with an English translation by Barbara Bartocci and Stephen Read, was published on 17 October 2024 by Open Book Publishers.

The book is available in PDF Open Access, with hyperlinks to one of the manuscripts and other relevant texts. (It is also possible to purchase a printed copy.)

The volume was prepared as part of the Leverhulme Project 'Theories of Paradox in Fourteenth-Century Logic: Edition and Translation of Key Texts'.

In light of Bradwardine’s criticisms, Walter Segrave, writing around 1330, defended so-called restrictivism (restrictio) by claiming that such paradoxes exhibited a fallacy of accident. The classic example of this fallacy, the first of Aristotle’s fallacies independent of language, is the Hidden...