General provisions

This course may run jointly with the course 5FT173 at advanced level. The course requirements are higher on students at advanced level than on C level students.

Entry requirements

60 credits in Practical Philosophy or Theoretical Philosophy

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students should be able to:

• display good knowledge of the contemporary literature on conceptual engineering through critical discussion of themes from this literature
• display good understanding of conceptual engineering as an approach to philosophy
• display good understanding of how conceptual engineering relates to various metaphilosophical views
• have the skills needed to apply the method of conceptual engineering to various philosophical questions.

Content

The course provides an overview of conceptual engineering. In brief, conceptual engineering is about assessing and revising concepts as opposed to merely analyzing and describing them. It aims to explain and illustrate what conceptual engineering is supposed to be, what challenges it is held to face, and what the main questions in the discussion of conceptual engineering are. Focus is on how conceptual engineering is relevant to issues in various different parts of philosophy, and on how the discussion of conceptual engineering highlights questions about what philosophy is and aims to be.

Instruction

The instruction is in the form of lectures, but the lectures are to a significant extent interactive.

Assessment

The examination is in written form through three shorter writing assignments (around 600 words each) and a longer assignment at the end of the course (an essay of around 3500-4000 words).

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.