Workshop – Conceptual Engineering, Changing the Subject, and Continuity of Communication and Inquiry

  • Date: 15 June 2023, 09:00 – 16 June 2023, 17:30
  • Location: English Park, – Eng22-1009
  • Type: Workshop
  • Web page
  • Organiser: Department of Philosophy
  • Contact person: Delia Belleri


Conceptual engineering is often concerned with the revision or replacement of conceptual representations, with the general goal of improving the way we think and talk. Yet, conceptual revisions or replacements could cause discontinuities in inquiry and communication between agents who still deploy the older concept and agents who apply the new one. Critics of the method of conceptual engineering deem these discontinuities damaging and even counterproductive. For them, conceptual engineering can “change the subject”, and changing the subject is considered an undesirable consequence. Is this really the case? How important is continuity in an inquiry, or in the course of a conversation? How can speakers cope with potential disruptions of meaning, subject-matter, or question under discussion? Is it okay for conceptual engineers to cause – and even exploit – such disruptions? Are there any viable alternatives?

The aim of this workshop is to gather international scholars who have an interest in these and other neighbouring questions, to discuss as-of-yet underexplored aspects of subject-change, continuity and discontinuity in inquiry and communication in conceptual engineering.

Organized by Delia Belleri (Uppsala University). Funded through the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101018408.

For programme, speakers and abstracts, please visit the workshop's homepage.


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