My research interests lie primarily in the history of metaphysics. Most of my publications are about the practical consequences of various metaphysical views. I have serious interests in the ways that the early modern rationalists—particularly Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) and Anne Finch Conway (1631-1679)—use their metaphysical systems to draw moral and political conclusions. In connection with this line of research, my article, “The Metaphysics of Natural Right in Spinoza,” was awarded the Sanders Prize in Early Modern Philosophy.
Some of my research also explores the relationship between metaphysics, on the one hand, and our philosophical views about logic and science, on the other. Both now and throughout history, presuppositions about metaphysics have shaped how we understand results in logic and science. Several of my recent articles are intended examine and make explicit these connections.
Publications
Books
Jonathan Head and John Grey. Forthcoming. Early Modern Philosophy: An Inclusive Introduction with Readings. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Journal Articles and Book Chapters
John Grey. Forthcoming. Parts and Wholes. In Cambridge Spinoza Lexicon, eds. Karolina Hübner and Justin Steinberg. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
John Grey. Forthcoming. Power (potentia and potestas). In Cambridge Spinoza Lexicon, eds. Karolina Hübner and Justin Steinberg. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
John Grey. Forthcoming. Right (including sui iuris). In Cambridge Spinoza Lexicon, eds. Karolina Hübner and Justin Steinberg. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
John Grey. Forthcoming. Singular Things. In Cambridge Spinoza Lexicon, eds. Karolina Hübner and Justin Steinberg. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
John Grey. 2023. Anne Conway’s Ontology of Creation: A Pluralist Interpretation. Journal of the American Philosophical Association.
John Grey. 2021. The Metaphysics of Natural Right in Spinoza. Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy, Volume X.
David Godden and John Grey. 2021. Reasoning by Grounded Analogy. Synthese 199(3-4): 5419-5453.
Catherine Kendig and John Grey. 2020. Can the epistemic value of natural kinds be explained independently of their metaphysics? British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.
John Grey. 2019. Species and the Good in Anne Conway’s Metaethics. In Comparative Metaethics: Neglected Perspectives on the Foundations of Morality, ed. Colin Marshall. New York: Routledge.
John Grey and Aaron Garrett. 2018. You are what you eat, but should you eat what you are?: Modern philosophical dietetics. In Oxford Handbook of Food Ethics, eds. Anne Barnhill, Tyler Doggett, and Andy Egan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
John Grey. 2017. Conway’s Ontological Objection to Cartesian Dualism. Philosophers’ Imprint 17 no. 3.
John Grey. 2017. The Modal Equivalence Rules of the Port-Royal Logic. History and Philosophy of Logic 38 no. 3.
John Grey. 2017. Reply to Nadler: Spinoza and the Metaphysics of Suicide. British Journal for the History of Philosophy 25 no. 2.
John Grey. 2015. Reason and Knowledge in Spinoza. In Spinoza: Basic Concepts, ed. André Santos Campos. Exeter: Imprint Academic.
John Grey. 2015. Semantic and Pragmatic Stances toward Emerging Media. In Philosophy of Emerging Media, ed. Juliet Floyd and James Katz. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
John Grey. 2014. Spinoza on Composition, Causation, and the Mind’s Eternity. British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 22 no. 3.
John Grey. 2013. ‘Use Them At Our Pleasure’: Spinoza on Animal Ethics. History of Philosophy Quarterly, 30 no. 4.
Book Reviews & Encyclopedia Entries
John Grey. Forthcoming. Review of Steven Nadler, Think Least of Death: Spinoza on How to Live and How to Die. Journal of the History of Philosophy. [PDF of accepted version here.]
John Grey. 2020. Review of Martin Lin, Being and Reason: An Essay on Spinoza’s Metaphysics. Mind. [PDF of accepted version here.]
John Grey. 2019. Review of Michael LeBuffe, Spinoza on Reason. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, 17 April.
John Grey. 2018. Review of Emily Thomas, Early Modern Women on Metaphysics. Journal of the History of Philosophy, 56 no. 4.
John Grey. 2016. Review of Roger Ariew, Descartes and the First Cartesians. Journal of the History of Philosophy, 54 no. 1.
John Grey. 2015. Spinoza: Moral Philosophy. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
John Grey. 2015. Review of Tad Schmaltz (ed.), Efficient Causation: A History. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, 4 March.
