Staff profile

About

On leave until October 2025

I have broad interests in philosophy, though most of my thinking circles around space-perception, the nature of human action, and form in art. 

My approach tends to be fairly historical and I enjoy collaboration. Since 2015 I have been working closely with Rachael Wiseman on the Women In Parenthesis project, one of the fruits of which is our co-authored book Metaphysical Animals. We've also run a number of spin-off activities, the latest of which is Philosophy in the Wild. You can join the Mapping the Quartet network (for researchers working on one or all of Iris Murdoch, Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot or Mary Midgley) here. I am also part of the research collaboration Sense Perception in the North (SPIN) with fellow philosophers of perception from Leeds, York and Liverpool.

This year I am working on a number of areas/papers: Iris Murdoch's aesthetics, Midgley's treatment of evil as a formal feature of practical reasoning, Midgley's conception of 'mixed community', and (with Rachael Wiseman), the idea of 'practical nonsense', as it shows up in Anscombe and Midgley. We are also working more broadly on orientation with respect to value across multiple spatio-temporal scales.

Aside from Quartet-inspired papers, I am almost always on the verge of starting to write a book that links forms of structural explanation in metaphysics, ethics and aesthetics.

I am originally from Dublin and my name Mac Cumhaill is pronounced Mac 'Cool' (a gaelified version of the anglicized Mc Cool, which is the name of this mythical person)

Administrative Role

From October 2025 - Director of Research

• History of Philosophy (esp. mid-century British moral philosophy)
• Philosophy of Action
• Philosophy of Perception

Authored book

• Mac Cumhaill, C., & Wiseman, C. (2022). Metaphysical Animals: How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life. Chatto and Windus (UK), Doubleday (US)

Chapter in book

• Mac Cumhaill, C. (2022). Sensation in Intention. In A. Haddock, & R. Wiseman (Eds.), The Anscombean Mind. Routledge
• Mac Cumhaill, C., & Wiseman, R. (2022). The Importance of Murdoch's Early Encounters with Anscombe and Marcel. In M. Hopwood, & S. Panizza (Eds.), The Murdochian Mind. Routledge
• Mac Cumhaill, C., & Wiseman, R. (2021). Sensation and the Grammar of Life: Anscombe’s Procedure and Her Purpose. In H. Logue, & L. Richardson (Eds.), Purpose and Procedure in Philosophy of Perception (276-294). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198853534.003.0014
• Mac Cumhaill, C. (2019). 'Raum' and 'room': Comments on Anton Marty on Space Perception. In H. Leblanc, & G. Bacligalupo (Eds.), Anton Marty and Contemporary Philosophy. Palgrave McMillan
• Mac Cumhaill, C. (2018). Nonsense and Visual Evanescence. In T. Crowther, & C. Mac Cumhaill (Eds.), Perceptual Ephemera. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198722304.003.0014
• Mac Cumhaill, C. (2017). Night Fight. In H. Naar, & F. Teroni (Eds.), The ontology of emotion (187-208). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316275221.011

Edited book

• Mac Cumhaill, C., & Crowther, T. (Eds.). (2018). Perceptual Ephemera. Oxford University Press

Journal Article

• Mac Cumhaill, C. (2022). Bivs, Space and 'in'. Erkenntnis, 87(1), 369-392. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-019-00198-z
• Mac Cumhaill, C., & Wiseman, R. (2022). Interrupting the conversation: Donald MacKinnon, wartime tutor of Anscombe, Midgley, Murdoch and Foot. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 56(6), 838-850. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.12689
• Mac Cumhaill, C. (2020). Depicting Human Form. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements, 87, 151-167. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1358246119000274
• Mac Cumhaill, C. (2020). Still Life, A Mirror: Phasic Memory and Re-encounters with Artworks. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 11(2), 423-446. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-020-00472-y
• Mac Cumhaill, C. (2020). Getting the measure of Murdoch's Good. European Journal of Philosophy, 28(1), 235-247. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejop.12540
• Mac Cumhaill, C. (2020). Co-seeing and seeing through: reimagining Kant’s subtraction argument with Stumpf and Husserl. British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 28(6), 1217-1239. https://doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2019.1695579
• Mac Cumhaill, C. (2018). Absential Locations and the Figureless Ground. Sartre Studies International, 24(1), 34-47. https://doi.org/10.3167/ssi.2018.240104
• Mac Cumhaill, C. (2017). The Tactual Ground, Immersion and "the space between". The Southern Journal of Philosophy, 55(1), 5-31. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjp.12212
• Mac Cumhaill, C. (2015). Perceiving Immaterial Paths. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 90(3), 687-715. https://doi.org/10.1111/phpr.12037
• Mac Cumhaill, C. (2011). Specular Space. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 111(3pt3), 487-495. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9264.2011.00320.x