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 (duh!)
[3] The Function of Pain
2021. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 99(2): 364-378.
Synopsis: Pain is not primarily an informant about bodily damage.
Work-in-Progress
Pain Measurement
a paper on the prospects of pain psychophysics
a paper on variations in pain sensitivity
Mental Architecture
a paper on the possibility of inferential transitions in pain processing (R&R)
a paper on the thermal grill illusion
Miscellaneous
a paper on the variety of sensory failures (with Sam Clarke)
Email:
L.Casser[at]sheffield.ac.uk
Address:
45 Victoria Street,
Broomhall, Sheffield
S3 7QB
United Kingdom
Office: C31