After receiving his PhD in 1994, Sleutels served in a number of administrative positions, including Secretary to the Faculty Board (1995-1997), Director of an e-learning project (Prima Philosophia, 1997-1999), and Director of Studies (1999-2002). His earlier research had concentrated on problems of mental content in contemporary philosophy of mind (internalism vs externalism, computational vs connectionist theories). When returning to this task in 2003, Sleutels decided to try a new approach inspired by the Toronto School hypothesis (Innis and McLuhan), that technological conditions for communication affect the nature of the contents transmitted ('the medium is the message'). This new approach may broadly be labeled media philosophy.

The working hypothesis is that identity conditions for mental contents are responsive to pressures from historically changing technological conditions. This also affects the way these contents can be ‘managed’ in thinking processes, especially in rational thinking, which is generally conceived as a specific form of systematic content management. More generally, if both the contents and the processes in which they are involved are subject to substantial changes, it may be argued that the human mind itself is subject to substantial change – or more cautiously, that the proper model of mind that applies to earlier stages of technological development may be substantially different from current models of mind.

So far three papers have been published or are forthcoming (see below). Work in progress includes papers on conceptual frameworks, on copyright and mental content, and on fringe mind strategies.

Patentontologie. Over de schoonheid van de taal bij Lucebert. In: Ria van den Brandt en Bart Philipsen, red., De waarheid waarover ik niets weet te zeggen Over poëzie en waarheid. Damon, Budel, 2004, pp. 51-59.
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Greek zombies, Philosophical psychology, 2006 (forthcoming).
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On the alleged absurdity of substantially unconscious Greek minds. To appear in: Marcel Kuijsten, ed., Reflections on the Dawn of Consciousness. AHP Press, Fall 2006.