Post-Truth Conceptual Engineering

Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy:1–16 (2021)
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Abstract

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 2018; cf. Podosky 2018). 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.

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Author's Profile

Manuel Gustavo Isaac
EPFL - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

Citations of this work

Which Concept of Concept for Conceptual Engineering?Manuel Gustavo Https://Orcidorg Isaac - 2021 - Erkenntnis: An International Journal of Scientific Philosophy:1–25.
On Pluralism and Conceptual Engineering: Introduction and Overview.Delia Belleri - forthcoming - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy:1-19.
Design for values and conceptual engineering.Herman Veluwenkamp & Jeroen van den Hoven - 2023 - Ethics and Information Technology 25 (1):1-12.

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References found in this work

Meaning and Necessity: A Study in Semantics and Modal Logic.Rudolf Carnap - 1947 - Chicago, IL, USA: University of Chicago Press.
Doing without concepts.Edouard Machery - 2009 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Meaning and Necessity: A Study in Semantics and Modal Logic.Rudolf Carnap - 1947 - Chicago, IL, USA: University of Chicago Press.
The Minority Body: A Theory of Disability.Elizabeth Barnes - 2016 - Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.

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