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Biography
Penelope Mackie was a lecturer at the University of Birmingham from 1994 to 2004, having previously held a fixed-term fellowship at New College, Oxford, from 1990 to 1994. Before that she was Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University (1987-90), a visiting lecturer at The University of Maryland (1986-87) and a lecturer at various Oxford colleges.
Expertise Summary
Her principal research interests are in a variety of topics in metaphysics and the philosophy of language, especially necessity and causation.
Research Summary
Penelope's research has been concerned chiefly with topics in metaphysics and the philosophy of language, especially necessity and causation. Her book on necessity and essentialism, How Things Might… read more
Recent Publications
MACKIE, P., 2021. Sortals, Timelessness, and Transcendental Truth Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume. 95(1), 287-307 MACKIE, P., 2020. Essentialism and Modality. In: BUENO, O. and SHALKOWSKI, S., eds., The Routledge Handbook of Modality Routledge. 61-69
MACKIE, P., 2019. Perception, Mind-Independence, and Berkeley Australasian Journal of Philosophy.
I expect to be on research leave in Autumn Semester 2022-23
Current Research
Penelope's research has been concerned chiefly with topics in metaphysics and the philosophy of language, especially necessity and causation. Her book on necessity and essentialism, How Things Might Have Been, was published in 2006 by Oxford University Press. She is interested in a wide range of philosophical topics, including aspects of the history of Philosophy, both ancient and modern (especially the British Empiricists), epistemology, identity over time (including personal identity), free will and determinism, reasons for action and weakness of will, and consequentialism in ethics. She is currently one of the editors in Metaphysics for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.