Brian David Ellis

Who is Brian David Ellis?

Brian Ellis is an Emeritus Professor in the philosophy department at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia. He is one of the major proponents of the New Essentialist school of philosophy of science.

In The Philosophy of Nature: A Guide to the New Essentialism, he groups a number of philosophers into his camp:

The new essentialism has evolved from these beginnings and can reasonably claim to be a comprehensive philosophy of nature. Philosophers around the world, including Sydney Shoemaker, Charles Martin, George Molnar, George Bealer, John Bigelow, Caroline Lierse, Evan Fales, Crawford Elder, Nicholas Maxwell, Nancy Cartwright and John Heil, have contributed to in various ways to its development. So the new essentialism is not just a personal view, but an emerging metaphysical perspective that is the culmination of many different attempts to arrive at a satisfactory post-Humean philosophy of nature.

However, this list of claimed allies has been disputed by Stephen Mumford, at least with regard to "Shoemaker, Martin, Molnar, Heil and Cartwright."