CV

Leonard Jay Clapp

Department of Philosophy
903 Zulauf Hall
Northern Illinois University
Dekalb, Illinois 60115
lclapp@niu.edu

Education

Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA, 1994

B. A., University of Wisconsin, Madison WI, 1988

                

Dissertation

Seeing Through Opacity:  A Defense of the Russellian Approach to Propositional Attitudes
Supervisors:  Sylvain Bromberger, Richard Cartwright, and Robert Stalnaker

                

Area of Specialization

Philosophy of Language

 

Areas of Competence

Logic, Philosophy of Mind, History of Analytic Philosophy              

 

Employment History

Full Professor:  Norther Illinois University, spring 2013 – present            

Assistant Professor:  Northern Illinois University, fall 2012 – spring 2013.             

Investigador (nivel-1): Sistema Nacional de Investigadores, México, fall 2011 – fall 2012.

InvestigadorInstituto de Investigaciones Filosóficas, UNAM, fall 2007– fall 2012.        

Visiting Professor: University of California, Davis, fall 2001 – spring 2002.

Associate Professor:  Illinois Wesleyan University, spring 2000 – spring 2008.             

Assistant Professor:  Illinois Wesleyan University, fall 1995 – spring 2000.

Instructor:  Tufts University, fall 1993 – summer 1995, and summer 1997.

Instructor:  Massosoit Community College, fall 1992 – spring 1993. 
              

Publications

“On Denying Presuppositions,” Synthese, forthcoming.

“Negative Existentials” (with Marga Reimer and Anne Spire), in the Oxford University Handbook of Reference, Abbott, B. and Grundel, J. (eds.), forthcoming. 

“A Non-Alethic Approach to Faultless Disagreement,” Dialectica, forthcoming.

“Denegaciones Metalinguisticas y Existentiales Negativos,” Diánoia, Vol. LVII, No. 70, May 2013.

“Three Challenges for Indexicalism,” Mind and Language, Vol. 27, Issue 4, 435-465, September 2012.

“Indexical Color Predicates: Truth Conditional Semantics vs. Truth Conditional Pragmatics,” The Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 42, No. 2. June 2012.

“Is Even Thought Compositional?” Philosophical Studies, 157: 299-322, 2012.

“Varieties of the Generality Constraint” (with Laura Duhau), Manuscrito, 34(2), 2011.

“Unarticulated Tensions,” in Context Dependence, Perspective and Relativity, F. Recanati, I.  Stojanovic, and N. Villanueva, (eds.) Mouton de Gruytter, 2010.

“The Rhetorical Relations Approach to Indirect Speech Acts:  Problems and Prospects,” Pragmatics and Cognition, 17:1, 43-76, 2009.

“The Problem of Negative Existentials Does Not Exist:  A Case For Dynamic Semantics,” Journal of Pragmatics, 41: 1422-1434, 2009. Semantics and Pragmatics, G. Preyer and G. Peter (eds.) Oxford University Press, 2008.

“Minimal (Disagreement About) Semantics”  in Context-Sensitivity and Semantic Minimalism: Essays on Semantics and Pragmatics, G. Preyer and G. Peter (eds.) Oxford University Press, 2008.

“In Defense of Context Shifting Arguments,” in Compositionality, Context and Semantic Values, in the Series Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy R. Stainton and C. Viger (eds.), Springer, 2008.

“Propositional Attitudes, Philosophical Aspects,” in Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics - 2nd Edition, K. Brown (ed.), Elsevier Publishers, 2005.

“On the Interpretation and Performance of Non Sentential Assertions,” in Ellipsis and Non-Sentential Speech, R. Stainton and R. Elugardo (eds.). In the series Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy, Dordrecht : Kluwer, 2004.

“Davidson's Program and Interpreted Logical Forms,” Linguistics and Philosophy, 25: 261-297, 2002.

“What Unarticulated Constituents Could Not Be,” in Meaning and Truth:  Investigations in Philosophical Semantics, J. Campbell, M. O’Rourke, and D. Shier (eds.), earlier version of the paper appears in MIT Working Papers in Linguistics and Philosophy, R. Bhatt, P. Hawley, M. Hackl, and I. Maitra (eds.),  Cambridge:  MIT Working Papers, 2000.) 

“Obviously Propositions are Nothing . . .’:  Russell and the Logical Form of Belief Reports” (with Robert Stainton) in Logical Form and Language, G. Preyer and G. Peter (eds.), Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 2002.

“Disjunctive Properties:  Multiple Realizations,” The Journal of Philosophy, vol. XCVIII, no. 3, March, 111-136, 2001.

“Beyond Sense and Reference:  An Alternative Response to the Problem of Opacity,” in The Pragmatics of Attitude Ascriptions, vol. 4 of Current Research in the Semantics/Pragmatics Interface, K. M. Jaszczolt, (ed.), Amsterdam:  Elsevier Science, 2000.

“Senses, Sensations and Brain Processes,” The Southwest Philosophy Review, 14: 139-148, 1997.

“How to be Naive and Innocent:  A Criticism of Crimmins and Perry’s Theory of Attitude Ascriptions,” Linguistics and Philosophy, 18: 529-565, 1995.

Review of Imagination and Convention: Distinguishing Grammar and Inference in Language, by Ernie Lepore and Mattew Stone, in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, August, 2015.

Review of Asking Questions: Using Meaningful Structures to Imply Ignorance, by Robert Fiengo, in Dialectica, Vol. 67, No. 2, 243-264, 2013.

Review of Critical Pragmatics:  An Inquiry into Reference and Communication, by Kepa Korta and John Perry, in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews,  June 2012.

Review of Reference and Reflexivity by John Perry, in Crítica, vol. 41, no. 123, 147-162, December, 2010.

Review of Situating Semantics:  Essays on the Philosophy of John Perry, M. O’Rourke and C. Washington (eds.), in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews,  February, 2008.

Review of Minimal Semantics, by E. Borg, in Mind, vol. 116, no. 462, 391-396, April 2007.

Review of Semantics versus Pragmatics, Z. Gendler Szabo (ed), in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, July, 2005.

Review of Scientific Essentialism, by Brian Ellis, in The Philosophical Review, vol. 111, no. 4, October 2002.

Review of On Quine, P. Leonardi, and M. Santambrogio (eds.), in The Philosophical Review, vol. 106, no. 4, October, 1997.

Entry for Sylvain Bromberger in the Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers, 1860-1960, M. Holme (ed.), Thoemmes Press, 2004.

 

Selected Paper Presentations

“Truth Conditional Pragmatics and Semantic Presupposition,” Symposium on Pragmatics and Semantics, Pacific Division of the APA, April 16-20, 2014.

“A Defense of Semantic Presupposition and Pragmatic Presupposition Denial,” Workshop on Language and Interpretation, Instituto de Investigaciones Filosoficas, UNAM, Mexico City, March 20-22, 2013.

“Indexical Color Predicates: Truth Conditional Semantics vs. Truth Conditional Pragmatics,” III Encuentro sobre Lenguage, Contexto y Cognición, Valparaiso, Chile August 4-6, 2010.

“Variedades del Requisito de Generalidad,”  Primer Congreso Latinoamericano de Filosofía Analítica, 13 April l3-16 2010, Mérida, México.

“It’s not Like ‘That’:  Against Indexical Color Predicates,” Taller sobre la Percepción y el Lenguaje del Color, Instituto de Investigaciones Filosoficas, UNAM, Mexico City May 20-21 2010.

“Unarticulated Tensions,” Conference on Communicative Practices, Instituto de Investigaciones Filosoficas, UNAM, Mexico City, October 2-3, 2009.

“Is Even Thought Compositional?” Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Colombia, June 23, 2009.

“Is Even Thought Compositional?” Context-Depencence, Perspective, and Relativity in Language and Thought, Institut Jean-Nicod, Paris France, Novermber 9-11, 2007.

“A Plea for Contextualism.”  Joint Session of the Aristotelian Society and Mind Association, July 7-9 2007, University of Bristol, Great Britain.

“Indirect Speech Acts and Rhetorical Relations:  A Promising Approach?” 9th International Pragmatics Conference, Riva Del Garda, Italy, July 10-15 2005.

“Are Radical Pragmatics and Truth Conditional Semantics Incompatible?” Recent Research in Semantics, conference and workshop at Carleton University, Ottawa Ontario, October 17-19 2003

“The Problem of Negative Existentials Does Not Exist,” Central meeting of the APA, Cleveland Ohio, April 23-26 2003.

“The Problem of Negative Existentials Does Not Exist,” UC Davis Philosophy Colloquium Davis CA, June 2002.

“What Unarticulated Constituents Could not Be,” Inland Northwest Philosophy Conference on Truth and Meaning, Pullman Washington, 2000.

“Disjunctive Properties:  Multiple Realizations,” University of Wisconsin Philosophy Colloquium, Madison Wisconsin, 1999.

“Making Physical Properties Matter More:  A Defense of Nonreductive Physicalism,” Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology, New Orleans LA, 1998.

“Senses, Sensations and Brain Processes,” Southwestern Philosophical Society, Memphis TN, 1997.        

“Disjunctive Properties:  Multiple Realizations,” Carleton University Philosophy Colloquium, Ottawa Ontario, 1997.

“Making Physical Properties Matter More:  A Defense of Nonreductive Physicalism,” Mid-South Philosophy Conference, Memphis TN, 1996.

“A Failure to Makes Senses of Irreducible Mental Properties,” Illinois State University Philosophy Colloquium, Normal Illinois 1995.

Selected Critic for Crimmins' Talk About Beliefs “Author Meets Critics” session at the 1995 Pacific APA in San Francisco CA. 

 

Grants, Fellowships and Leaves of Absence

In 2003 I received a Heritage Library Gift Grant to augment the holdings in the area of logic at IWU’s Ames Library.  (Prof. Joerg Tiede, and Prof. Larry Stout were co-authors of the proposal.)

In 2002 I was awarded a Sabbatical Leave for the 2003-2004 academic year from Illinois Wesleyan University.

In 2001 I was awarded a Curriculum Development Grant to develop an interdisciplinary course from the Mellon Center for Faculty and Curriculum Development at Illinois Wesleyan University.

In 1998 I was awarded a Jr. Faculty Leave from Illinois Wesleyan University; this funding enabled me to spend the spring of 1999 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a visiting scholar in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy.

In 1997 I was awarded two Curriculum Development Grants from the Mellon Center for Faculty and Curriculum Development at Illinois Wesleyan University. One grant was for developing the pedagogical use of information technology and the other was for developing an interdisciplinary course.

In 1996 I was awarded a stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities; this stipend enabled me to participant in a six-week NEH Summer Seminar on “Metaphysics of Mind” held at Cornell University. 

In 1996 I was awarded a Curriculum Development Grant to develop the pedagogical use of information technology from the Mellon Center for Faculty and Curriculum Development at Illinois Wesleyan University.


Membership in Professional Organizations

American Philosophical Association

Illinois Philosophical Association


Other Professional Activities

Secretary-Treasurer of the Illinois Philosophical Association, fall 2000 – spring 2002.         

Visiting Scholar: MIT Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, spring 1999. 

Referee:  Synthese, Linguistics and Philosophy, Mind and Language, Mind, Dialectica, Philosophical Quarterly, Dialogue, The Canadian  Journal of Philosophy, The Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Nous, The European Journal of Philosophy, Crítica, Diánoia, Philosophy and  Phenomenological Research, Erkenntnis, Pragmatics and Cognition, Philosophia, Manuscrito, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, The Southern Journal of Philosophy,  The European Journal of Analytic Philosophy,  The Journal of Logic, Language and Information, Journal of Philosophical Research, Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, Oxford  University Press, Blackwell  Publishers, The Canadian Philosophical Association, The Illinois Philosophical Association.


Languages

English, Spanish, and some German.


Graduate Courses and Seminars Taught

“Disagreement”
Northern Illinois University

“Philosophy of Mind: Challenges to Physicalism”
Northern Illinois University

“Truth Conditional Pragmatics”
Northern Illinois University

“Philosophy of Language”
Northern Illinois University
University of California, Davis

“Contemporary Analytic Philosophy”
University of California, Davis

“Attribuciones de Actitudes Proposicionales”
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

“Existencia, Negación y Presuposición”
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

“Minimalismo, Contextualismo, y Relativismo”
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

“Filosofía del Lenguaje de la Epistemología”
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

 

Undergraduate Courses Taught

“Philosophy of Language”
Northern Illinois University
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
University of California, Davis
Illinois Wesleyan University

“Philosophy of Mind”
Northern Illinois University
Illinois Wesleyan University

“Elementary Symbolic Logic”
Tufts University
Illinois Wesleyan University

“Advanced Symbolic Logic”
Illinois Wesleyan University

“Theory of Knowledge”
University of California, Davis

“Philosophy of Science”
Illinois Wesleyan University

“Introduction to Philosophy”
Northern Illinois University
Tufts University
Illinois Wesleyan University
Massasoit Community College

“Mind and World”
Illinois Wesleyan University

“Major Philosophers: Quine”
Illinois Wesleyan University

“Special Topic:  Wittgenstein”
Illinois Wesleyan University

“Special Topic:  Compositionality and Minimalism”
Illinois Wesleyan University

“Special Topic:  Knowledge, Skepticism and Context Sensitivity”
Northern Illinois University

“Ethical Theory”
Tufts University

“Gateway First-Year Colloquium”
Illinois Wesleyan University

“Truth and Culture”
Illinois Wesleyan University

“Junior Writing Seminar”
Northern Illinois University


Theses Directed

“Sobre enunciados de Identidad y lo Necesario A Posteriori” Armando Lavalle, MA Thesis, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2014.

“Una Investigación Empírica sobre los Actos de Habla,” José Pérez Aquino, MA Thesis, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2011.

“An Examination of Demonstratives,” Adam Simon, BA Thesis, Illinois Wesleyan University, 2008.

“Physicalism and Phenomenal Experience,” Nick Timme, BA Thesis, Illinois Wesleyan University, 2007.

“An Investigation of A Priori Knowledge,” Jen Baker, BA Thesis, Illinois Wesleyan University, 1998.

“Minding the Mental:  Intentionality, Consciousness and Dan Dennett in Contemporary Philosophy of Mind,” Matt Dusek, BA Thesis, Illinois Wesleyan University, 1997.

“Two Problems in the Philosophy of Mind,” C.J. Summers, BA Thesis, Illinois Wesleyan University, 1996.