Elanor Taylor is an Associate Professor of Philosophy. She earned her PhD from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2012, and before coming to Johns Hopkins University she was an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Iowa State University.

Elanor Taylor’s research is primarily in metaphysics, particularly metaphysics of science and social metaphysics. She is especially interested in connections between explanation and metaphysics, and foundational questions about the nature and possibility of social metaphysics. She has published on a range of topics including emergence, natural properties, explanation, oppression, and social metametaphysics. For more information, see www.elanortaylor.org

Elanor Taylor regularly teaches undergraduate and graduate classes on topics in metaphysics, philosophy of science, and philosophy of gender. Recent classes include:

AS 150.622 Metametaphysics. Graduate seminar.

AS 150.678 Social Construction. Graduate seminar.

AS 150.436 Philosophy of Gender. Mixed undergraduate/graduate seminar.

AS 150.301 Realism and Anti-Realism. Undergraduate seminar for Philosophy majors.

AS 150.301 Truth. Undergraduate seminar for Philosophy majors.

AS 150.260 Introduction to Metaphysics. Introductory undergraduate course.

Selected Publications:

“Substantive Social Metaphysics.” (2023) Philosophers' Imprint 23(18): 1-18

“Explanatory Distance.” (2023) British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 74(1):221-239

(Short Read, Selected for BJPS Editors’ Choice.)

"Against Explanatory Realism." (2018) Philosophical Studies 175 (1):197-219

“Groups and Oppression.” (2016) Hypatia 31 (3): 520–536

“Collapsing Emergence.” (2015) Philosophical Quarterly 65 (271): 732-753 

“An Explication of Emergence.” (2015) Philosophical Studies 172 (3): 653-669