We have a lot of modal knowledge – knowledge of what might and must’ve been. We use certain cognitive capacities to acquire it. My research explores the nature of these capacities using naturalistic methods. My view is that the developmental psychology of modal judgement and the formal semantics of modal expressions can teach us a lot about these capacities. Knowledge of abilities is an important species of modal knowledge and that is how my interests overlap with the Human Abilities project – not to mention my quite general interest in all things modal.

I am a PhD student under the supervision of Professor Barbara Vetter. And I am part of the DFG-project Capacities and The Good which she directs with Professor Erasmus Mayr. My interest in modal knowledge goes back to my undergraduate studies at the University of Manchester and my BPhil studies at the University of Oxford.