Curriculum Vitae
Brian Leahy
June 26, 2024
1 Personal Information
Email: leahy.b.p@gmail.com Citizenship: Canadian Address: 43 Vassar St Cambridge, MA USA Website: brianleahy.net
2 Fields of Study
2.1 Specialization
Cognitive development; philosophy of mind and language; formal pragmatics
3 Appointments
2023-PresentDepartment of Brain and Cognitive Sciences- MITPostdoctoral Fellow
2023-2024Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences- Brown UniversityPostdoctoral Fellow
2009-2017Department of Linguistics- University of KonstanzPostdoctoral Fellow, What if? Interdisciplinary research group on counterfactuality
2010-2012Zukunftskolleg- University of KonstanzAssociated Fellow
4 Education
Harvard University Ph.D (Psychology), defended April 14 2023 Dissertation: The wisdom of "might": How children come to know what possibilities are Committee: Susan Carey, Jesse Snedeker, Paul Harris, Josh Tenenbaum
University of Connecticut Ph.D (Philosophy), defended March 27, 2009 Dissertation: Fantasy, Fiction, Forecast Committee: John Troyer, Ruth Millikan, Gunnar Björnsson (University of Umeå)
University of Alberta MA (Philosophy), April 2003
Dalhousie University BA (Hons) (Philosophy), April 2000
5 Publications
20. Leahy, Brian (2024). "Many preschoolers don't distinguish the possible from the impossible in a marble catching task" Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 238: e105794
19. Leahy, Brian (2023). ”Don't you see the possibilities? Young preschoolers may lack possibility concepts” Developmental Science e13400
18. Leahy, Brian, Michael Huemer, Matt. Steele, Stephanie Alderete, and Susan Carey (2022). ”Minimal Representations of Possibility at Age 3” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 119(52): e2207499119
17. Leahy, Brian, and Eimantas Zalnieriunas (2022). ”Might and might not: Children's conceptual development and the acquisition of modal verbs” Semantics and Linguistic Theory XXXI: 426-445
16. Rafetseder, Eva, Christine O'Brien, Brian Leahy, and Josef Perner (2021). ”Extended difficulties with counterfactuals persist in reasoning with false beliefs: Evidence for teleology-in-perspective” Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 204: 105058
15. Leahy, Brian, and Susan Carey (2020). ”The Acquisition of Modal Concepts” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 24(1): 65-78
14. Carey, Susan, Brian Leahy, Jonathan Redshaw, and Thomas Suddendorf (2020). ”Could It Be So? The Cognitive Science of Possibility” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 24(1): 3-4
13. Huemer, Michael, Brian Leahy and Josef Perner (2018). ”Mental Files Theory of Mind: When do children consider agents acquainted with different object identities?” Cognition 171: 122–129
12. Leahy, Brian (2018). ”Counterfactual antecedent falsity and the epistemic sensitivity of counterfactuals” Philosophical Studies 175(1): 45-69
11. Leahy, Brian and Maximilian Huber (2017). ”Two arguments for the etiological theory over the modal theory of function” Synthese 194(4): 1169-1187
10. Perner, Josef and Brian Leahy (2016). ”Mental files in development. Dual naming, false belief, and identity” Review of Philosophy and Psychology 7(2): 491-508.
9. Leahy, Brian (2016). ”Simplicity and elegance in Millikan’s account of productivity: Reply to Martinez” Philosophical Psychology 29(4): 503-516.
8. Leahy, Brian (2016). ”On presuppositional implicature” Topoi 35: 83-91.
7. Perner, Josef, Michael Huemer and Brian Leahy (2015). ”Mental files and belief: A cognitive theory of how children represent belief and its intensionality” Cognition 145: 77-88.
6. Leahy, Brian (2015). ”Counterfactual antecedent falsity and embedded antipresuppositions” Proceedings of Moscow Syntax and Semantics 2, Vadim Kimmelman, Natalia Korotkova, and Igor Yanovich, eds. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 75 (2015): 69–84.
5. Leahy, Brian (2014). ”Teleosemantics: Intentionality, productivity, and the theory of meaning” Language and Linguistics Compass vol. 8 (2014): 197–210.
4. Leahy, Brian, Eva Rafetseder and Josef Perner (2014). ”Basic conditional reasoning: How children mimic counterfactual reasoning” Studia Logica 102(4) (2014): 793–810.
3. Leahy, Brian (2013). ”Can teleosemantics deflect the EAAN?” Philosophia vol. 41 (2013): 221–238.
2. Leahy, Brian (2011). ”Presuppositions and antipresuppositions in conditionals” Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory XXI, N. Ashton, A. Chereches, and D. Lutz, eds. (2011): 257–274.
1. Heyes, Cressida, David Kahane, Jennifer Welchman, Leahy Armontrout Spencer, Paul Beech, Lisa Kretz, Brian Leahy, Elizabeth Panasiuk, Jennifer Runke and John Simpson (2004). ”Always ask Why? Teaching philosophy 101” Halifax: Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education monograph series, 2004.
6 Presentations
6.1 Invited Presentations
24. "The wisdom of "might": How children come to appreciate multiple possibilities" Summer Seminar at Wesleyan, Wesleyan University, June 2024
23. "Evidence that children appreciate possibilities emerges in parallel in language and behavior" Third ARED Workshop, University of Stirling, February 2024
22. ”Seeing possibilities" Cognitive Science Colloquium, University of Gottingen, March 2021
21. ”Marking possibilities: A Developmental Perspective" New York Philosophy of Language Workshop, New York University, February 2020
20. ”Recognizing Possibilities" Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Salzburg, January 2020
19. ”Representing Mere Possibilities" Ontario Meaning Workshop, Ontario, August 2019
18. ”What Don't Early Preschoolers Do with Possibilities?" McDonnell Network on the Foundations of Abstract Thought, Martha's Vineyard, June 2019
17. ”Modal Concepts: Developing Thoughts of the Possible and the Impossible" University of Konstanz, January 2019
16. ”On the Development of Counterfactual Reasoning" The Many What Ifs, University of Konstanz, October 2018 [with Eva Rafetseder]
15. ”A Closer Look at the Semantics in Teleosemantics?" Teleosemantics and the Nature of Functions, Bielefeld University, September 2017
14. ”Informative Test Semantics for Indicative Conditionals" 3rd Belgrade Conference on Conditionals, May 2017
13. ”What's so cool about counterfactual reasoning?" Interdisciplinary Workshop on Counterfactual Reasoning, University of Toronto, November 2016
12. ”Teleology-in-perspective: Clarifying the role of counterfactual reasoning in false belief reasoning" 2nd Belgrade conference on conditionals, University of Belgrade, May 2016
11. ”Counterfactual antecedent falsity and the epistemic sensitivity of counterfactuals" Hungarian Academy of Sciences-Linguistics Institute, November 2015
10. ”Discussion of Ganea, Perner and Kovacs" Symposium on mental files and development, EAP Cognitive science conference, University of Turin, September 2015
9. ”Counterfactual antecedent falsity and the epistemic sensitivity of counterfactuals" First Belgrade Conference on Conditionals, University of Belgrade, May 2015
8. ”On presuppositional implicature" Siena Workshop on Presupposition and Implicature, University of Siena, March 2015
7. ”What is logic for a teleosemanticist?" Semantic Pluralism Workshop, University of Konstanz, January 2015
6. ”Productivity in teleosemantics” Department of Philosophy, University of Bielefeld, September 2013
5. ”Counterfactual truth and temporal reference” Department of Linguistics, University of Göttingen, July 2012
4. ”Logical consequence in teleosemantics” Department of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, May 2012
3. ”Where meaning comes from: The biology of semantics and conditional sentences” Zukunftskolleg, University of Konstanz, December 2011
2. ”Indicative, subjunctive, accident, oversight” Department of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, February 2010
1. ”Tenses in conditional semantics and counterfactual implicatures” Department of Linguistics, University of Konstanz, December 2009
6.2 External Presentation (Peer Reviewed)
22. ”Minimal representations of possibility at age 3” Joint meeting of the ESPP and the SPP, University of Milan, July 2022
22. ”Minimal representations of possibility at age 3” Budapest CEU Conference on Cognitive Development, January 2022
22. ”Representing the Possible and the Impossible” Budapest CEU Conference on Cognitive Development, January 2020
21. ”Recognizing possibilities” Society for Philosophy and Psychology, UCSD, July 2019
20. ”Modal Concepts: Developing Thoughts of the Possible and the Impossible" Central European University Summer School ”THinking about the possible”, July 2018
19. ”Teleology-in-perspective: clarifying the role of counterfactual reasoning in false belief reasoning" Budapest CEU Conference on Cognitive Development, Central European University, January 2017
18. ”Productivity and recursion in teleosemantics” Finding Common Ground, University of Connecticut, June 2014
17. ”Counterfactual antipresuppositions and local maximize presupposition” 8th Barcelona Workshop on Conditionals, June 2013
16. ”Logical consequence in teleosemantics” Second Conference on the Foundations of Logical Consequence, Arché, June 2012
15. ”Teleosemantics and formal systems” The 12th Szklarska Poreba Workshop, February 2012
14. ”Teleosemantics and mental conditionals” First Philosophy of Language and Mind Conference, University of Stockholm, September 2011
13. ”The function of mental conditionals” Joint Session of the Aristotelian Society and the Mind Association, July 2011
12. ”Presuppositions and antipresuppositions in conditionals” Semantics and Linguistic Theory, May 2011
11. ”Embedded antipresuppositions in counterfactuals” Moscow Syntax and Semantics 2, April 2011
10. ”Testing theories of tense in conditional antecedents” The 12th Szklarska Poreba Workshop, March 2011
9. ”A biosemantic theory of conditionals” European Society for Philosophy and Psychology, August 2010
8. ”Presuppositions in subjunctive conditionals” Konstanz Workshop in Generative Grammar, April 2010 [With Maribel Romero]
7. ”Implicatures in subjunctive conditionals” The 11th Szklarska Poreba Workshop, March 2010 [With Maribel Romero, in absentia]
6. ”Indicative, subjunctive, accident, oversight” Central European University Summer School on Conditionals, August 2009
5. ”Why philosophers should stop talking about counterfactuals” Alternate for Princeton-Rutgers Graduate Philosophy Conference, March 2009
4. ”Indicative/subjunctive, accident, oversight” Atlantic Region Philosopher’s Association, October 2007
3. ”The misadventures of counterfactual hook” CUNY-The Graduate Center Graduate Student Philosophy Conference, April 2007
2. ”Teleosemantics of conditionals” Western Canadian Philosophical Association, October 2006
1. ”I don’t want my NTV” Canadian Philosophical Association, May 2006
6.3 Poster Presentations
5. ”Recognizing Possibilities” Cognitive Development Society, Louisville, 2019
4. ”Recognizing Possibilities” CogSci, Montreal, 2019
3. ”Teleology-in-perspective: Clarifying the role of counterfactual reasoning in false belief reasoning" International Convention of Psychological Science, Vienna, March 2017
2. ”Logical consequence in teleosemantics” GAP 8, University of Konstanz, September 2012
1. ”Antipresuppositions and the projection of conditional presuppositions” Theoretical Pragmatics, ZAS (Berlin), October 2011[With Nicole Gotzner]
6.4 Commentaries
2. Commentary on Patricia Ganea and Angela Nyhout, ”What if reality matters?” What if? The semantics, pragmatics, and psychology of counterfactuals, University of Toronto, March 2017
2. Commentary on Ethan Nowak, ”Hidden arguments and non-deictic demonstratives” Eastern APA, December 2014
1. Commentary on Benjamin Schnieder, ”A logic for because” Monthly Monday Meeting, Formal Epistemology Research Group, Konstanz, May 2010