I am a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Bristol in the UK.

I work primarily on the intersection between metaphysics,  philosophy of language, and epistemology. I also have interests in the philosophy of mind, and in philosophy of science.

In 2024 I started a new project with Anna-Sofia Maurin on Inheritance in philosophy. The project is funded by the Swedish Research Council and will run for 3 years.

At the moment I’m thinking about mostly metametaphysics and reality’s structure. In particular, I’m interested in questions about the epistemology of metaphysical structure, and in the notion of metaphysical explanation and its relation to other (more familiar) notions of explanation. Relatedly, I’m trying to work out irrealist approaches to grounding and fundamentality which tread a path between familiar realist positions, and eliminativist approaches.

I am working on my first monograph: Structuring Reality, which is under contract with OUP. There I develop and defend a less-than-fully-realist account of reality’s structure.

I’m also interested in applications of debates about metaphysical structure, for example in the philosophy of mind, and in the sciences. I’m currently thinking a lot about how the notion of metaphysical explanation might need to be adapted in order to accommodate the kind of structural explanations we find in the social realm, and about what that might tell us about social reality as well as about metaphysical reality generally.

I have further interests in the philosophy of fiction, particularly where it intersects with metaphysics and philosophy of language. For example, in the metaphysics of fictional characters, accounts of fiction, and the ontology of games.

You can find details of my publications and work in progress, and of recent and upcoming talks from the link on the right.

Here is a very short video of me saying some things about metaphysics. You can see a short interview here, and if watching online lectures is your thing, here is a public lecture I gave at the Royal Institute of Philosophy on fictionalism about grounding.

Contact: naomi.thompson@bristol.ac.uk