The Mind, Language and Metaphysics research cluster is the largest group in the department and covers a broad range of key philosophical disciplines and philosophical methodologies. We have world-leading expertise in many core areas of philosophical metaphysics – these include the study of causation, grounds, powers, laws, emergence, the nature of fundamental reality and metametaphysics – as well as a panoply of other key and emerging topics at the forefront of philosophical debate. We have strong research interests in the nature of time and space, including the history of the understanding of these concepts, in questions relating to free-will and determinism, mental action, the nature of rationality, philosophy of action, social ontology, perception, emotion and in questions surrounding the nature of value. Our research in language and logic includes work on philosophy of fiction, philosophy of linguistics, language evolution, informal argumentation, mathematical logic and machine reasoning.

We are proud of our pluralistic approach and meta-philosophy – for instance, we have strong interests in early phenomenological approaches to intentionality and in Wittgensteinean and otherwise grammatical approaches to mind and action. MLM also has interdisciplinary collaborative ties with colleagues in Durham and beyond in various other disciplines, including classics, psychology, physics, linguistics, chemistry and computer science.