Soren Schlassa

I'm a fifth year PhD student in the NYU Department of Philosophy. I work on metaphysics, cognitive science, and metasemantics. My dissertation is on the question: why are there objects at all? Why not just an undifferentiated mass?

I'm also interested in methodological questions in the cognitive sciences, like the natures of computation, representational format, and representation.

Philosophical Applications of Cognitive Science

As primary instructor, Summer '22. 

Syllabus here, developed by me.

Global Ethics

Instructor: Kwame Anthony Appiah, Spring '23

Philosophy of Language

Instructor: Matt Mandelkern, Fall '22

Philosophy of Mind

Instructor: Verónica Gómez Sánchez, Spring '22

Philosophical Applications of Cognitive Science

Instructor: Michael Strevens, Fall '21

My philosophy-teaching philosophy: I really like teaching philosophy. My first goal is to get students thinking like philosophers. To me that means framing hypotheses, clarifying them, applying them to cases, revising them, and rooting out misunderstanding. I think studying philosophy is a particularly good way to practice these things. I put a lot of effort into making my classes welcoming and collaborative.

My committee is Michael Strevens and Ned Block.

Papers in progress:

"How to See Things"

Defends an account of what it is to visually represent objects, drawing heavily on empirical work. 

"How to Think About Things"

Extends the account of "How to See Things" to object reference that is not guided by occurrent vision.

"Why Are There Any Things At All?"

Argues that there are objects, but that this fact does not go deep. Develops a way of making this shallowness precise without implausible dependency claims.