About

I am an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan. Before coming to Michigan, I completed my PhD at the University of Southern California and my BA at UNC Chapel Hill. Recently, I spent the academic year 2021-22 at the University of Texas, Austin as a Harrington Faculty Research Fellow in Philosophy.

​I work mainly on issues in metaphysics and philosophical logic, particularly those that concern radically permissive ontologies. Many of my recent projects explore material plenitude: the view that there is a multitude of coincident objects wherever there is any material object. I also have interests in epistemology, philosophy of language, and aesthetics.

Research

For full abstracts and selected works in progress, check out my Research page.
  • Symmetry and Hybrid Contingentism. in Higher-Order Metaphysics (OUP), ed. Peter Fritz and Nicholas K. Jones, forthcoming. (preprint)
  • Plenitude, Coincidence, and Humility. Philosophical Perspectives, forthcoming. (preprint)
  • ​Arbitrariness and the Long Road to Permissivism. Noûs, 2022. doi: 10.1111/nous.12376
  • Varieties of Plenitude, Philosophy Compass, 15 (3), 2020. doi: 10.1111/phc3.12654
  • The Barest Flutter of the Smallest Leaf: Understanding Material Plenitude. The Philosophical Review, 128 (2):143-178, 2019. doi: 10.1215/00318108-7374932 (selected for the Philosopher's Annual)
  • Against Conservatism in Metaphysics (with John Hawthorne).  Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, 82: 45-75, 2018. doi: 10.1017/s1358246118000103
  • A Paradox of Matter and Form. Thought, 6:33-42,  2017. doi: 10.1002/tht3.230

Teaching

See my Teaching page for information about the courses I teach, as well as my UM Student Resources page, where I've compiled information about student support resources available at the University of Michigan.

Contact

mmfair@umich.edu
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