Politics, Words, and Concepts: On the Impossibility and Undesirability of ‘Amelioration’

Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 95:47-61 (2024)
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Abstract

Recently, several philosophers have argued that there is a political necessity to alter certain important concepts, such as WOMAN, in order to give us better tools to understand and change oppressive conditions. I argue that conceptual change of this sort is impossible. But I also argue that it is politically unnecessary – we can effect progressive change using the same old concepts we've always had.

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Louise Antony
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

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