Research

My research is located in the empirically orientated philosophy of mind, or neurophilosophy. That is, I am interested in multiple core aspects of the philosophy of mind while taking into account findings from neuroscience, psychology, and clinical medicine.

My research focuses on mental phenomena related to human suffering which appears to me as one of the most enigmatic, but also fascinating research subjects. I have intensively worked on pain and other bodily sensations. My research encompasses the phenomenality, neural implementation, causal embeddedness, and biological function of these mental phenomena. My investigations thereby relate to topics, such as the construction of quality spaces, the challenges of strong intentionalism, and the debate between psychophysicalism and psychofunctionalism as well as between scientific eliminativism and scientific pluralism.

Currently, I extend my field of research to different kinds of suffering, such as grief and depression, and develop a follow-up project located at the interface of philosophy and psychiatry. Concepts of situated cognition are proving to be increasingly influential. This includes a detailed investigation of core concepts of situated approaches, such as the field of affordances, scaffolding, and niche construction.

Another research area of mine is the philosophy of social understanding, especially the plurality of epistemic strategies and the role of mindreading.