New Perspectives on Conceptual Engineering - Volume 1: Foundational Issues

Conceptual engineering is the method of critically assessing, improving, and replacing the concepts we use in thought and talk. Based on lectures by leading philosophers at the Conceptual Engineering Online Seminar 2020-2022, this first of three volumes is dedicated to core foundational issues in conceptual engineering: questions about the nature and varieties of conceptual engineering, whether engineering a concept necessarily preserves core features of a concept, and where the normative limits of conceptual engineering lie. It is of interest to professional philosophers with expertise in metaphilosophy or those who seek to apply the methods of conceptual engineering to issues in their own areas of specialization, as well as philosophy students who want to get acquainted with the exciting and dynamic methodological developments of their discipline. This volume includes chapters by Derek Ball & Bryan Pickel, Delia Belleri, Paul Egré & Cathal O’Madagain, Peter Gardener, Hans-Johan Glock, James Hampton, Allison Koslow, Esa Díaz León, and Sarah Sawyer.

Manuel Gustavo Isaac is currently Postdoc.Mobility Fellow of the Swiss National Science Foundation at Arché Philosophical Research Centre (University of St Andrews). He received his PhD in 2015 from the University of Paris for a thesis in Historical epistemology. He has received several prestigious grants and fellowships for research projects on conceptual engineering. His work has been published in Synthese, Ratio, Inquiry, Erkenntnis, Philosophia, History and Philosophy of Logic, Logica Universalis, and several Springer book series among others. Dr. Isaac is the organizer of Arché’s seminar on conceptual engineering.

Kevin Scharp is Reader in Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at the University of St Andrews, the Director of Arché Philosophical Research Centre, and the leader of Arché’s Research Group on conceptual engineering. He received in PhD in 2005 from the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of three books with Oxford University Press and the editor of a collection with Harvard University Press. He has published numerous influential articles in the most prestigious journals of the field and is a leading figure in conceptual engineering. Dr. Scharp is the co-organizer of Arché’s seminar on conceptual engineering.