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Research

Most of my research focuses on causation and explanation. I am particularly interested in exploring how a scientifically and metaphysically respectable understanding of these notions can inform debates in philosophy of mind and philosophy of AI. I also have some research interests in philosophy of language and epistemology.

 

From August 2021 to December 2023, I was PI for the research project: Causation, Correlation and Sensitivity, funded by a Swedish Research Council international postdoc grant. This research was jointly hosted by Umeå University and Rutgers University. From February 2020 to July 2021, I was a post-doc on the DFG-funded Determinism, Control, and the Consequence Argument project at the University of Cologne.

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This page provides links to my published work, including my PhD thesis, and lists my work in progress.

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See my CV for more info, such as employment history, teaching experience, and presentations.

Published Work

Offical copies are available via the links, open access PhilArchive drafts can be accessed by clicking the title. Please cite the official copies when available. Feel free to contact me if you have difficulty accessing them.

2024

Mental Causation for Standard Dualists

Australasian Journal of Philosophy 102 (4): 978-998

https://doi.org/10.1080/00048402.2024.2335325

2022

Halfway Proportionality 

Philosophical Studies 179, pp. 2823–2843

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11098-022-01803-8

2022

And Therefore (with Alex Sandgren)

Inquiry: Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy

https://doi.org/10.1080/0020174X.2022.2075455

PhD Thesis

Causal After All: A Model of Mental Causation for Dualists

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Supervision: Pär Sundström (primary supervisor), Gunnar Björnsson, Torfinn Huvenes (2016-2019), and Andreas Stokke (2014-2016) 

In the Fall of 2019, I attained my PhD at Umeå University.

 

In my dissertation, I defend the controversial thesis that a standard dualist ontology of mind can allow for mental causation even if all events have sufficient physical causes. That is to say, I argue that it is possible for dualist mental phenomena to non-overdeterministically cause behavior in worlds where the physical realm is complete. I also critically assess previous proposals to this extent.

 

The dissertation was shortlisted for the 2020 Mercier Prize for monographs in metaphysics and first philosophy, awarded jointly by the philosophy departments at KU Leuven and Université Catholique de Louvain.

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A full text is available via DiVa.

Hard copies are available upon request.

Causal_After_All_Bram_Vaassen_CoverPage only.jpg

The excellent cover design by Tom Swaak

Work in Progress

[Drafts available upon request]


A paper on difference-making, arguing that it fails as a sufficient criterion for causation because it fails to incorporate insensitivity requirements.

A paper on grounding causal relations, arguing that proportionality-like considerations complicate the task of grounding causal facts.

A paper on projection behaviour in non-veridical contexts, arguing that some of the purported data incurs a chessire cat problem.

A paper on the causal pairing argument, arguing that it poses no serious threat to current accounts of dualist mental causation.

A paper on chatbot use and human dignity, arguing that relational approaches to human dignity in the Kantian tradition predict that many common chatbot uses are a threat to our dignity.


[Drafts available in the near future]

A paper on causation and impure sets, arguing that such sets pose a puzzle for mainstream theories of causation.

A paper on explanation and machine learning, arguing against the popular claim that decisions by AI algorithms defy explanation.
 

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