Abstract
Conceptual engineering is commonly characterized as the method for
assessing and improving our representational devices. Little has been
said, however, on how best to construe these representational devices—in
other words, on what conceptual engineering should be all about. This
paper tackles this problem with a basic strategy: First, by presenting a
taxonomy of the different possible subject matters for conceptual
engineering; then, by comparatively assessing them and selecting the
most conducive one with a view to making conceptual engineering an
actionable method, that is, a method that can be applied effectively and
consistently to specific case studies. The outcome is that conceptual
engineering should be all about concepts on pain of pragmatic
inconsistencies otherwise.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 2053–2065 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | Philosophia |
Volume | 49 |
Issue number | 5 |
Early online date | 27 Apr 2021 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Nov 2021 |
Keywords
- Metaphilosophy
- Philosophical methodology
- Conceptual engineering
- Concepts