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Catherine Sutton

Faculty Spotlight: Catherine Sutton, PhD

Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy

Written by Donald Smith, PhD, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Philosophy

 

Dr. Catherine Sutton, Associate Professor of Philosophy, thinks and writes about the nature of physical objects and philosophical problems involving them. In particular, her research focuses on the relationship between physical objects and their parts, with special attention on how human beings are related to their brains and bodies. 

In recent decades, a bottom-up approach to understanding physical objects has dominated philosophy. The guiding idea of this approach is that the smallest parts of an object completely determine its nature and properties. In her work, Dr. Sutton has not only shown the limits of this bottom-up approach to physical objects, but she has also developed and defended her own alternative view. On Dr. Sutton's alternative view, biological species membership, for example, is determined in part by the organism's relation to other members of the species, a relational fact that goes beyond, and is not reducible to, bottom-up facts about the smallest parts of an individual organism. 

Dr. Sutton is also an experienced and highly effective teacher. She teaches a broad range of courses including symbolic logic, ancient philosophy, metaphysics and philosophy of mind. If you see Dr. Sutton, ask her for one of the brain teasers she provides students in symbolic logic. You won't be disappointed, and your neurons will thank you too! Dr. Sutton is an indispensable member of the philosophy department. I'm not only delighted to have her as a colleague, I'm grateful to count her as a friend.

 

Select Publications

  • Sutton, C. S. “Reducing Constitution to Composition,” Metaphysica 23, no. 1 (2022): 81–94.
  • Sutton, C. S. “Almost One, Overlap, and Function,” Analysis 75, no. 1 (2015): 45–52.
  • Sutton, C. S. “Against the Maximality Principle,” Metaphysica 15, no. 2 (2014): 381–390.
  • Sutton, C. S. “The Supervenience Solution to the Too-Many-Thinkers Problem,” Philosophical Quarterly 64, no. 257 (October 2014): 619–639.
  • Sutton, C. S. “Colocation, Tally-Ho: A Solution to the Grounding Problem,” Mind 121, no. 483 (July 2012): 703–730.