Alice Murphy

Alice Murphy is a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy (MCMP) within the Faculty of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Religious Studies at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Starting September 2025, she will transition to a Lecturer position in philosophy at the University of St Andrews. Her academic career focuses on the intersection of philosophy of science, aesthetics, and imagination.

• PhD in Philosophy, University of Leeds (2020)
• Prior studies at University of Warwick and University of Bristol

Murphy's research centers on imagination, creativity, and aesthetic values in scientific practice. She investigates how aesthetic considerations influence experimental design, thought experiments, and scientific understanding. Her work bridges philosophy of science with aesthetics, exploring concepts like profundity in experiments and the relationship between form and content in scientific reasoning. She also examines the social dimensions of scientific imagination and creativity, including feminist epistemological perspectives.

Analysis of Murphy's publications reveals a consistent focus on expanding traditional views of aesthetics in science beyond beauty and elegance to include concepts like profundity, agency, and surprise. Her work demonstrates how aesthetic values serve epistemic functions in scientific practice, particularly in experimental design and thought experimentation. She frequently collaborates with scholars like Milena Ivanova, Adrian Currie, and Steven French, indicating strong interdisciplinary connections across philosophy of science, history of science, and aesthetics.

Murphy currently serves as Principal Investigator on her DFG project "Aesthetic Values and the Social Dimensions of Science" and has supervised numerous BA and MA dissertations in philosophy. Her teaching portfolio includes courses on imagination and aesthetics in science, philosophy of art and creativity, epistemology, feminist epistemology, and philosophy of science.

At LMU Munich, Murphy is affiliated with the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, a research center that brings together philosophers, logicians, and mathematicians to explore foundational questions in philosophy using mathematical methods. Her work contributes to the center's mission of advancing philosophical understanding through rigorous analysis of scientific practice.