Bram Vaassen
Biographic Data
| ID | 5996923 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bram Vaassen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bram |
| FAMILY NAME | Vaassen |
| SIGNATURE | VAASSEN B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Umeå University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6423-1324 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 7 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 7 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Dualist Approaches to Mental Causation
Dualists take the mind to be non‐physical. Their position is widely taken to preclude causal interactions between the mind and the body. Not only do causal interactions across the physical and non‐physical boundary appear mysterious, the physical realm also appears to be self‐sufficient in a way that leaves no room for non‐physical causes. I review recent work that pushes back against both appearances and aims to defend the possibility of dualist…
AI Mimicry and Human Dignity
This article investigates how human interactions with AI‐powered chatbots may offend human dignity. Current chatbots, driven by large language models, mimic human linguistic behaviour but lack the moral and rational capacities essential for genuine interpersonal respect. Human beings are prone to anthropomorphize chatbots – indeed, chatbots appear to be deliberately designed to elicit that response. As a result, human beings' behaviour towards ch…
Mental Causation for Standard Dualists
The standard objection to dualist theories of mind is that they seemingly cannot account for the obvious fact that mental phenomena cause our behaviour.On the plausible assumption that all our behaviour is physically necessitated by entirely physical phenomena, there appears to be no room for dualist mental causation.Some argue that dualists can address this problem by making minimal adjustments in their ontology.I argue that no such adjustments …
Halfway proportionality
According to the so-called ‘proportionality principle’, causes should be proportional to their effects: they should be both enough and not too much for the occurrence of their effects. This principle is the subject of an ongoing debate. On the one hand, many maintain that it is required to address the problem of causal exclusion and take it to capture a crucial aspect of causation. On the other hand, many object that it renders accounts of causat…
AI, Opacity, and Personal Autonomy
Advancements in machine learning have fuelled the popularity of using AI decision algorithms in procedures such as bail hearings, medical diagnoses and recruitment. Academic articles, policy texts, and popularizing books alike warn that such algorithms tend to be opaque : they do not provide explanations for their outcomes. Building on a causal account of transparency and opacity as well as recent work on the value of causal explanation, I formul…
And therefore
This article focuses on ‘therefore’ constructions such as ‘The switch is on, and therefore the lights are on’. We submit that the contribution of ‘therefore’ is to express a dependence as part of the core content of these constructions, rather than being conveyed by conventional implicature [Grice, H. P. 1975. “Logic and Conversation.” In The Semantics-Pragmatics Boundary in Philosophy, edited by M. Ezcurdia, and R. J. Stainton, 41–58. Broadview …
Causal exclusion without causal sufficiency
Some non-reductionists claim that so-called ‘exclusion arguments’ against their position rely on a notion of causal sufficiency that is particularly problematic. I argue that such concerns about the role of causal sufficiency in exclusion arguments are relatively superficial since exclusionists can address them by reformulating exclusion arguments in terms of physical sufficiency . The resulting exclusion arguments still face familiar problems, b…
Causal exclusion without causal sufficiency
Some non-reductionists claim that so-called ‘exclusion arguments’ against their position rely on a notion of causal sufficiency that is particularly problematic. I argue that such concerns about the role of causal sufficiency in exclusion arguments are relatively superficial since exclusionists can address them by reformulating exclusion arguments in terms of physical sufficiency . The resulting exclusion arguments still face familiar problems, b…
And therefore
This article focuses on ‘therefore’ constructions such as ‘The switch is on, and therefore the lights are on’. We submit that the contribution of ‘therefore’ is to express a dependence as part of the core content of these constructions, rather than being conveyed by conventional implicature [Grice, H. P. 1975. “Logic and Conversation.” In The Semantics-Pragmatics Boundary in Philosophy, edited by M. Ezcurdia, and R. J. Stainton, 41–58. Broadview …
Causal exclusion without causal sufficiency
Some non-reductionists claim that so-called ‘exclusion arguments’ against their position rely on a notion of causal sufficiency that is particularly problematic. I argue that such concerns about the role of causal sufficiency in exclusion arguments are relatively superficial since exclusionists can address them by reformulating exclusion arguments in terms of physical sufficiency . The resulting exclusion arguments still face familiar problems, b…
Halfway proportionality
According to the so-called ‘proportionality principle’, causes should be proportional to their effects: they should be both enough and not too much for the occurrence of their effects. This principle is the subject of an ongoing debate. On the one hand, many maintain that it is required to address the problem of causal exclusion and take it to capture a crucial aspect of causation. On the other hand, many object that it renders accounts of causat…
AI, Opacity, and Personal Autonomy
Advancements in machine learning have fuelled the popularity of using AI decision algorithms in procedures such as bail hearings, medical diagnoses and recruitment. Academic articles, policy texts, and popularizing books alike warn that such algorithms tend to be opaque : they do not provide explanations for their outcomes. Building on a causal account of transparency and opacity as well as recent work on the value of causal explanation, I formul…
Mental Causation for Standard Dualists
The standard objection to dualist theories of mind is that they seemingly cannot account for the obvious fact that mental phenomena cause our behaviour.On the plausible assumption that all our behaviour is physically necessitated by entirely physical phenomena, there appears to be no room for dualist mental causation.Some argue that dualists can address this problem by making minimal adjustments in their ontology.I argue that no such adjustments …
Dualist Approaches to Mental Causation
Dualists take the mind to be non‐physical. Their position is widely taken to preclude causal interactions between the mind and the body. Not only do causal interactions across the physical and non‐physical boundary appear mysterious, the physical realm also appears to be self‐sufficient in a way that leaves no room for non‐physical causes. I review recent work that pushes back against both appearances and aims to defend the possibility of dualist…
AI Mimicry and Human Dignity
This article investigates how human interactions with AI‐powered chatbots may offend human dignity. Current chatbots, driven by large language models, mimic human linguistic behaviour but lack the moral and rational capacities essential for genuine interpersonal respect. Human beings are prone to anthropomorphize chatbots – indeed, chatbots appear to be deliberately designed to elicit that response. As a result, human beings' behaviour towards ch…
Epistemology (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Philosophy and Theoretical Science (5 works) · Causation (4 works) · Law (3 works) · Political science (3 works) · Computer Science (2 works) · Economics (2 works) · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics (2 works) · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI (2 works)