Abstract
Conceptual engineering aims to improve our concepts. That's plausibly an extremely difficult thing to do. Should this make us sceptical of the idea that philosophers should try to do it? You might think so. Cappelen, in his Fixing Language: an Essay on Conceptual Engineering, thinks it shouldn't stop us–but his stated reasons are not really encouraging. In this paper, I say what I think Cappelen should have said, on the basis of a very rough cost-benefit analysis.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 212-226 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Inquiry-An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy |
| Volume | 64 |
| Issue number | 1-2 |
| Early online date | 2 Dec 2020 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2021 |
Keywords
- Conceptual engineering
- conceptual control
- metaphilosophy
- philosophical methodology
