Andrew Melnyk

Andrew Melnyk is a British and American philosopher interested in all aspects of the philosophy of mind and in many aspects of general philosophy of science and of metaphysics, his work having appeared in such journals as the Journal of Philosophy, Nous, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Philosophical Studies, Philosophy of Science, and the Australasian Journal of Philosophy. In most of his work, he has tried to formulate a comprehensive thesis of physicalism (or materialism) in terms of a carefully-defined relation of realization, to explore the implications of physicalism for various reductionist theses, to defend its consistency with causal claims made in the special sciences and everyday life, and to display empirical evidence that it is true. This work culminated in a book, A Physicalist Manifesto: Thoroughly Modern Materialism (Cambridge University Press, 2003).

A new book, Phenomenal Properties and the Intuition of Distinctness: The View from the Inside, was published by Oxford University Press in 2025. The book tries to explain why it might seem to us that phenomenal consciousness couldn't possibly be purely physical, even if in fact it is.

Melnyk has also written about naturalism, philosophical methodology, and the philosophy of language.

He is presently a professor of philosophy at the University of Missouri. Born in London to an English mother and a Ukrainian father, Melnyk was educated at St.Paul's School, London, and Oxford University.