Practical and Normative Challenges for the Serious Conceptual Engineer

This dissertation starts by defending that if the conceptual engineer is serious about the new contemporary project of conceptual engineering, the conceptual engineer aims to (at least) change the semantic meaning or the psychological structure of concepts used by most people in a standing language. I continue by arguing that based on this ‘serious’ definition of the conceptual engineer, the new field of conceptual engineering has three practical and normative challenges to overcome before the method can be what its primary participants want it to be. The first problem that is discussed is the widely recognised implementation problem. I discuss various proposed solutions to this problem but conclude that they do not solve the problem. The second significant challenge is what I call the evaluation dilemma. In short, this is the dilemma that the conceptual engineer faces if the engineer could implement conceptual change but has to consider based on what parameters a concept ought to...Show moreThis dissertation starts by defending that if the conceptual engineer is serious about the new contemporary project of conceptual engineering, the conceptual engineer aims to (at least) change the semantic meaning or the psychological structure of concepts used by most people in a standing language. I continue by arguing that based on this ‘serious’ definition of the conceptual engineer, the new field of conceptual engineering has three practical and normative challenges to overcome before the method can be what its primary participants want it to be. The first problem that is discussed is the widely recognised implementation problem. I discuss various proposed solutions to this problem but conclude that they do not solve the problem. The second significant challenge is what I call the evaluation dilemma. In short, this is the dilemma that the conceptual engineer faces if the engineer could implement conceptual change but has to consider based on what parameters a concept ought to be evaluated. I defend that the first horn of the dilemma that the engineer can take is considering all things about a concept. I argue that this is practically impossible. The second horn of the dilemma will only consider one or a small set of parameters to evaluate a concept. However, my argument is that this will likely lead to more unintended problems than the initial amelioration would solve. Finally, I discuss what I call two motivation problems for the conceptual engineer. The first motivation problem is the problem of accounting for the biassed motivations of the conceptual engineer. I argue that the subjective motivations of the engineer are problematic and that such motivations are likely to lead to the wrong-kind-of-reason-problem. The second motivation problem contends that if the conceptual engineer is successful in his project, one or a small group of engineers has conceptual power over large groups of people. I argue that the conceptual engineer owes us a justification for the motivation to gain such power. In short, based on the serious definition of the conceptual engineer, the new field of conceptual engineering has both practical and normative challenges to overcome before the method can be what its primary participants want it to be.Show less

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Practical and Normative Challenges for the Serious Conceptual Engineer