Contact details
2N1, second floor, central corridor, Burns Building, 95 Albany Street
Tel +64 3 471 6358
Email heather.dyke@otago.ac.nz
Academic qualifications
PhD Leeds (1996)
Research interests
Heather specialises in metaphysics, in particular, the philosophy of time. She defends the B-theory of time according to which there is no distinction between past, present and future, and no flow of time, independently of any perceiver.
She gained her BA (Hons) and PhD from the University of Leeds, where she worked with Robin Le Poidevin. She is the author of Metaphysics and the Representational Fallacy (Routledge, 2008), Time (Cambridge Elements in Metaphysics, Cambridge University Press, 2021), and co-editor with Adrian Bardon of A Companion to the Philosophy of Time (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013). She has published numerous journal articles.
She has taught at the University of Otago and the London School of Economics and Political Science. She teaches in Metaphysics, Critical Thinking, Ethics, Epistemology and Philosophy of Mind.
Publications
Book
- Time. Cambridge Elements in Metaphysics, Cambridge University Press, 2021.
- Metaphysics and the Representational Fallacy. New York: Routledge, 2008.
Edited books
- A Companion to the Philosophy of Time. Co-edited with Adrian Bardon. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.
- From Truth to Reality: New Essays in Logic and Metaphysics. New York: Routledge, 2009.
- Time and Ethics: Essays at the Intersection. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003.
Book chapters
- ‘Introduction’ in Heather Dyke and Adrian Bardon (eds) A Companion to the Philosophy of Time. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013: 1-6. With Adrian Bardon.
- ‘Evolutionary Explanations of Temporal Experience’ in Adrian Bardon and Heather Dyke (eds) A Companion to the Philosophy of Time. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013: 521-34. With James Maclaurin.
- ‘Time and Tense’ in Adrian Bardon and Heather Dyke (eds) A Companion to the Philosophy of Time. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013: 328-44.
- ‘Propositions: Truth vs. Existence’ in James Maclaurin (ed) Rationis Defensor: Essays in Honour of Colin Cheyne. Dordrecht: Springer, 2012: 127-38.
- ‘On Methodology in the Metaphysics of Time’ in Adrian Bardon (ed) The Future of the Philosophy of Time. New York: Routledge, 2011: 169-87.
- ‘Introduction’, in H. Dyke (ed) From Truth to Reality: New Essays in Logic and Metaphysics. New York: Routledge, 2009: 1-14.
- ‘What Moral Realism Can Learn From the Philosophy of Time’, in H. Dyke (ed) Time and Ethics: Essays at the Intersection. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003: 11-25.
- ‘Introduction’, in H. Dyke (ed) Time and Ethics: Essays at the Intersection. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003: 1-7.
- ‘McTaggart and the Truth About Time’ in C. Callender (ed) Time, Reality and Experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002: 137-52.
Journal articles
- ‘Existence and ∃xistence’, Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, 25(3) (2013): 367-76. With Zach Weber.
- ‘What Shall We Do With Analytic Metaphysics? A Response to McLeod and Parsons’, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 91(1) (2013): 179-82. With James Maclaurin. Available online at
- ‘What is Analytic Metaphysics For?’, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 90(2) (2012): 291-306. With James Maclaurin. Available online at
- ‘The Evolutionary Origins of Tensed Language and Belief’, Biology and Philosophy, 26 (2011): 401-18. Available online at )
- ‘Words, Pictures and Ontology: A Commentary on John Heil’s From an Ontological Point of View’, SWIF Philosophy of Mind Review 6 (2007): 31-41. Available online at
- ‘Tenseless/Non-Modal Truthmakers for Tensed/Modal Truths’, Logique et Analyse, 199 (2007): 269-87.
- ‘The Metaphysics and Epistemology of Time Travel’, Think, 9 (2005): 43-52. To be translated into Polish for an online open-access journal in 2015.
- ‘Temporal Language and Temporal Reality’ The Philosophical Quarterly, 53 (2003): 380-91.
- ‘Tensed Meaning: A Tenseless Account’, Journal of Philosophical Research, 28 (2003): 65-81.
- ‘“Thank Goodness That’s Over”: The Evolutionary Story’ Ratio 15 (2002): 276-92. With James Maclaurin. Reprinted in L. N. Oaklander (ed.) The Philosophy of Time: Critical Concepts in Philosophy, Vol. III. London: Routledge, 2008: 35-50.
- ‘Tokens, Dates and Tenseless Truth Conditions’, Synthèse 131 (2002): 329-51. Reprinted in L. N. Oaklander (ed.) The Philosophy of Time: Critical Concepts in Philosophy, Vol. I. London: Routledge, 2008: 287-309.
- ‘The Pervasive Paradox of Tense’, Grazer Philosophische Studien 62 (2001): 103-24.
- ‘Temporal Parts and Their Individuation’, Analysis 61 (2001): 289-92. With Jack Copeland and Diane Proudfoot.
- ‘Making Sense of Time Travel’, Cogito 9 (1995): 244-48.
Encyclopedia entries
- ‘Time, metaphysics of’, in E. Craig (ed.) Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy London: Routledge, 2005. Available online at . Revised version published in 2010.
Book reviews
- Review of Experiencing Time, by Simon Prosser. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. Philosophy Now 124 (2018): 48-49. Available online at
- Review of Time, Space and Metaphysics, by Bede Rundle. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Mind 120 (2011): 558-61. Published online 8 June 2011:
- Review of A Future for Presentism, by Craig Bourne. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Philosophical Quarterly 58 (2008): 747-51.
- Review of Persistence Through Time, and Across Possible Worlds, by J. Benovsky. Heusenstamm: Ontos Verlag, 2006. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (2006) Available online at
- Review of Real Metaphysics: Essays in Honour of D. H. Mellor, eds. H. Lillehammer and G. Rodriguez-Pereyra. London: Routledge, 2003. Philosophical Books 45 (2004): 359-61.
- Review of How Things Persist, by K. Hawley. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (2003) Available online at
- Review of The Blackwell Guide to Metaphysics, ed. R. M. Gale. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 2002. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 81 (2003): 620-21.
- Review of The Tensed Theory of Time, by W. L. Craig. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000. International Philosophical Quarterly 42 (2002): 404-06.
- Review of The Arguments of Time, ed. J. Butterfield. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Mind 110 (2001): 442-45.
- Review of Time, Tense and Causation, by M. Tooley. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. International Philosophical Quarterly 39 (1999): 100-1.
- Review of Language and Time, by Q. Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993. Mind 104 (1995): 436-40.
Other publications
- ‘Jane Austen’s Family and Court Lodge’, Austentations: An Occasional Periodical of the Jane Austen Society Kent Branch. (Spring 2016): 23-37.
- ‘Why is Doping Wrong Anyway?’, The Conversation. (August 2016). Available online at
- ‘Science and Philosophy: Making Time for Each Other’, Ockham’s Razor ABC Radio National, aired 9 December 2007. Transcript available online at .
Teaching
Heather regularly teaches in: