Taylor Pincin

B.A., UC Berkeley (2014)

MSt., University of Oxford (2016)

PhD., UT Austin (2023)

Taylor Pincin is interested in cause, explanation, and priority in Aristotle's metaphysics. Aristotle is well-known for distinguishing four causes: the material, formal, efficient, and final. He is also well-known for speaking in terms of what is prior to what and for distinguishing several ways of being prior, though this family of locutions is less well understood. At least one of the ways of priority that Aristotle discusses seems to be "ontological," in that it obtains between entities (as opposed to terms or facts) and is concerned with how they depend on each other for their being. Pincin's current work draws connections between this so-called "ontological priority" and Aristotle's theory of causes. Doing so helps to situate Aristotle's metaphysics within his broader theory of science and also sets the stage for thinking further about whether, and if so in what sense, Aristotle was genuinely a pluralist not only about cause, but also about priority.