Picture of Dr Tom Ainsworth

Contact details

Role: Stipendiary Lecturer in Philosophy

Email: thomas.ainsworth@trinity.ox.ac.uk

Research interests

My doctoral thesis was on Aristotle’s metaphysics, looking in particular at his concepts of substance, matter and form. The title was ‘The Grounds of Unity: substantial and sub-substantial being in Aristotle’. My most immediate research interests continue to lie in the direction of Aristotelian metaphysics.

Teaching

Most of my teaching is in ancient philosophy, particularly Plato and Aristotle. I have given the undergraduate lectures on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. I also enjoy teaching a number of modern philosophy papers, especially those that focus on the more theoretical areas of philosophy, such as metaphysics and the philosophy of language.

Recent publications

‘Priority in Being in Aristotle’, Philosophy Compass 13 (May 2018)

‘Form vs. matter’, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2016)

‘Me, me, me! Barney the Egoist’, in ed. Lorenzo von Matterhorn, How I Met Your Mother and Philosophy: Being and Awesomeness, Vol. 81 Popular Culture and Philosophy (Chicago, 2014)