TY - JOUR
T1 - Post-truth conceptual engineering
AU - Isaac, Manuel Gustavo
N1 - Funding: This research article has been written with the sponsorship of a Postdoc. Mobility Fellowship of the Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant number: P400PG_183807) and a Beatriu de Pinós Fellowship of the Catalan Agency for the Management of University and Research Grants (Grant number: 00110).
PY - 2024/1/1
Y1 - 2024/1/1
N2 - Conceptual engineering is the method for assessing and improving our concepts. Some have recently claimed that the implementation of such method in the form of ameliorative projects is truth-driven and should thus be epistemically constrained, ultimately at least (Simion, Mona. 2018b. “The ‘Should’ in Conceptual Engineering.” Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 61 (8): 914–928; cf. Podosky, Paul-Mikhail Catapang. 2018. “Ideology and Normativity: Constraints on Conceptual Engineering.” Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy, Online first, 1–15. doi:10.1080/0020174X.2018.1562374). This paper challenges that claim on the assumption of a social constructionist analysis of ideologies, and provides an alternative, pragmatic and cognitive framework for determining the legitimacy of ameliorative conceptual projects overall. The upshot is that one should not ameliorate for the sake of truth or knowledge, in the case of ideologies – at least, not primarily.
AB - Conceptual engineering is the method for assessing and improving our concepts. Some have recently claimed that the implementation of such method in the form of ameliorative projects is truth-driven and should thus be epistemically constrained, ultimately at least (Simion, Mona. 2018b. “The ‘Should’ in Conceptual Engineering.” Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 61 (8): 914–928; cf. Podosky, Paul-Mikhail Catapang. 2018. “Ideology and Normativity: Constraints on Conceptual Engineering.” Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy, Online first, 1–15. doi:10.1080/0020174X.2018.1562374). This paper challenges that claim on the assumption of a social constructionist analysis of ideologies, and provides an alternative, pragmatic and cognitive framework for determining the legitimacy of ameliorative conceptual projects overall. The upshot is that one should not ameliorate for the sake of truth or knowledge, in the case of ideologies – at least, not primarily.
KW - Conceptual engineering
KW - Amerliorative project
KW - Social constructionism
KW - Ideologies
KW - Post-truth
U2 - 10.1080/0020174x.2021.1887758
DO - 10.1080/0020174x.2021.1887758
M3 - Article
SN - 0020-174X
VL - 67
SP - 199
EP - 214
JO - Inquiry
JF - Inquiry
IS - 1
ER -
