Laurenz Casser

I am a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield.

My research lies at the intersection of the philosophy of mind, psychology, and cognitive science, and is informed by the life and the medical sciences. I am particularly interested in foundational problems in the study of pain, and the ways in which their solutions unsettle traditional assumptions about the mind. My current research focuses on pain's biological function, the mental architecture of pain processing, and the history of pain measurement.

Before coming to Sheffield, I completed my Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin. Before that, I received a BPhil in Philosophy and a MSt in Ancient Philosophy from the University of Oxford, and a BA in Classics from the University of Manchester.

Here is my CV.

Publications

[1] Is Pain Modular? (with Sam Clarke)
2023. Mind & Language 38(3): 828-846.
Synopsis: If pain is inferential, it is most likely modular.

[2] A Hole in the Box and a Pain in the Mouth (with Henry Schiller)
2021. The Philosophical Quarterly 71(4): 685-700.
Synopsis: If there is a pain in your finger, and your finger is in your mouth, then there is pain in your mouth.

[3] The Function of Pain
2021. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 99(2): 364-378.
Synopsis: Pain is not primarily an informant about bodily damage.

Teaching

Spring 2024: Intro to Technology Ethics, UT Austin

Fall 2023: Intro to Philosophy of the Arts, UT Austin

Spring 2022: Contemporary Moral Problems, UT Austin

Fall 2020: Environmental Ethics (upper-division), UT Austin

Spring 2020: Human Nature, UT Austin

Email:
laurenzcasser-at-utexas-dot-edu

Address:
Department of Philosophy
The University of Texas at Austin
2210 Speedway, Stop C3500
Office: WAG 309
Austin, Texas 78712-1737