Professor Cynthia Macdonald
Position
- Adjunct Professor of Philosophy
- Professor of Philosophy, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
Qualifications
- B.A. (Wayne State)
- B.Phil. (Oxford)
- D.Phil (Oxford)
Contact Details
cynthia.macdonald@canterbury.ac.nz
cynthia.macdonald@manchester.ac.uk
Background
Cynthia Macdonald was educated at Wayne State University, where she completed her Bachelor of Arts degree, and the University of Oxford, where she completed her B.Phil in Philosophy (Somerville College) and her D.Phil in Philosophy (Wolfson College). From 1975 to 1998 she taught at the University of Manchester, first as a lecturer, then as a Senior Lecturer and as a Reader in Philosophy. She was appointed Professor of Philosophy at the University of Canterbury in September 1998 and appointed Professor of Philosophy at Queen’s University Belfast in 2005. She was appointed Professor of Philosophy at the University of Manchester in 2011.
Cynthia has held the Belle van Zuylen Visiting Professorship at the University of Utrecht, and Visiting Professorships at the Queen's University, Belfast, Rutgers University and Columbia University. From 2003 to 2004 she was an External Residential Fellow at the Humanities Institute, University of Connecticut, and in 2006 she was a Residential Fellow at the Rockerfeller Foundation Study and Residence Centre, Bellagio. Prior to her appointment at the University of Canterbury, she was Honorary Secretary of the Mind Association; and she is currently a member of the Editorial Boards of the Australasian Journal of Philosophy, the International Journal of Philosophical Studies, and Philosophical Explorations. She has participated in a number of international conferences and invited lecture tours.
Research Interests
Cynthia's research interests are in the areas of philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology and cognitive science, and metaphysics. She is currently working on two research projects. One, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, is on the topic of Authoritative Self-Knowledge. The other, with Graham Macdonald, funded by the Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden fund, is on the topic of Mental Causation and Explanation in the Human Sciences.
Cynthia is author of Mind-Body Identity Theories (Routledge's Problems of Philosophy Series), and Varieties of Things: Foundations of Contemporary Metaphysics (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 2005). She is also co-editor (with Graham Macdonald) of Emergence in Mind, McDowell and His Critics, Philosophy of Psychology: Debates on Psychological Explanation and Connectionism: Debates on Psychological Explanation, Knowing Our Own Minds (with Crispin Wright and Barry Smith), and Readings in the Foundations of Contemporary Metaphysics (with Stephen Laurence). She has published widely in the areas of philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, and metaphysics, in The Journal of Philosophy, Mind, Noûs, Synthese, Analysis, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, and edited collections.Recent Publications
Click this link to view Cynthia Macdonald's publications page