Conversation with Barbara Vetter

Barbara Vetter is Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at Freie Universität Berlin. She has previously taught at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen, and holds a BPhil and a DPhil from Oxford University. Barbara Vetter is the author of Potentiality: From Dispositions to Modality (Oxford University Press, 2015), co-editor of Dispositionen: Texte aus der zeitgenössischen Debatte (with Stephan Schmid, Suhrkamp, 2014) and has published various articles on dispositions, modality, abilities, and related issues in metaphysics, semantics, and philosophy of science. Most of her work focusses on developing and defending a disposition-based approach to modality. In this interview, Vetter explains how she became interested in philosophy and in the metaphysics of modality specifically. She also talks about her book, Potentiality, answering some questions about dispositions, potentiality and possible worlds, concluding with some thoughts on the role of women philosophers in metaphysics.