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It’s intellectually irresponsible to throw yourself headlong into an inquiry before questioning the concepts you’re using in that inquiry.
- Herman Cappelen and David Plunkett
I'm currently reading over the proofs for a book review I wrote that's coming out in the Journal of Moral Philosophy. The book is Reality & Morality by Billy Dunaway, and I'll let you know when it's available, in case you're interested. But first:
Here's a free 400+ page book from Oxford University Press: Conceptual Engineering and Conceptual Ethics.
I don't know why it has remained free for download, but there you go.
I love thinking about philosophy as conceptual engineering. My second published philosophy article focused in part on the benefits of conceptual engineering.
Philosophy has been thought of as conceptual analysis for quite some time, but the conceptual engineering/ethics project is more recent and gets more specific. The idea is that a good chunk of philosophy centers around concepts like knowledge, the good, beauty, causation, etc., and the project recognizes that some proposals about those concepts have been defective in some way. So the approach seeks to engineer those concepts so that they are optimized, or they fit our natural intuitions better, or more accurately represent the world.
It's a metaphilosophical approach, i.e. an approach that's about philosophy as a whole. It can get applied in goofy ways, but as a tool the approach can help clarify the goals and methods for a lot of what goes on in philosophy. Here's how the editors of the book put it:
Conceptual engineering is not usefully construed as a branch of any other part of philosophy. It will draw on insights from philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, epistemology, political philosophy, philosophy of science, ethics, and other fields. That, of course, is also true about these other fields (i.e., they will draw on insights from each other). A case can, however, be made that conceptual engineering is prior to or more fundamental than all other philosophical disciplines. The argument is simple and obvious: reflection and argumentation in any part of philosophy must rely on concepts (epistemology relies heavily on, e.g., KNOWLEDGE and JUSTIFICATION; ethics on, e.g., OUGHT and BAD; and so on for each branch of philosophy.) (p. 4, my emphasis)
Not only is that the case for philosophy, but reflection and argumentation in almost every discipline must rely on concepts: HAPPINESS in psychology, PERIODIZATION in historical analysis, VO2 MAX in health and fitness, SIN in theology, PROFIT in business, GUARD in martial arts, and so forth.
I would start with the first chapter if you're not yet familiar with the topic. Other helpful chapters include 7, 8, 14, 19, and 21, but those are just suggestions.
Happy reading.
This Week's Free Philosophy Resource:
Title: Conceptual Engineering and Conceptual Ethics​
Editors: Alexis Burgess, Herman Cappelen, and David Plunkett
Reading Level: Upper-Level College
Until next time.
Jared
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