FIXING LANGUAGE:ESSAY ON CONCEPTUAL ENGINEERING

FIXING LANGUAGE:ESSAY ON CONCEPTUAL ENGINEERING

Herman Cappelen investigates ways in which language (and other representational devices) can be defective, and how they can be improved. In all parts of philosophy there are philosophers who criticize the concepts we have and propose ways to improve them. Once one notices this about philosophy, it's easy to see that revisionist projects occur in a range of other intellectual disciplines and in ordinary life. That fact gives rise to a cluster of questions: How does the process of conceptual amelioration work? What are the limits of revision? (How much revision is too much?) How does the process of revision fit into an overall theory of language and communication? Fixing Language aims to answer those questions. In so doing, it aims also to draw attention to a tradition in 20th- and 21st-century philosophy that isn't sufficiently recognized. There's a straight intellectual line from Frege and Carnap to a cluster of contemporary work that isn't typically seen as closely related: much work on gender and race, revisionism about truth, revisionism about moral language, and revisionism in metaphysics and philosophy of mind. These views all have common core commitments: revision is both possible and important. They also face common challenges about the methods, assumptions, and limits of revision. "... the past few years have seen an explosion of work that is described by its authors as "conceptual engineering"; and Cappelen bears no small share of the responsibility for this. ... I would recommend Fixing Language to anyone interested in meaning and philosophical methodology. This is not only because of the interest of the various ideas Cappelen discusses under the umbrella of the Austerity Framework, but also because of the many acute criticisms of alternative views." -- Derek Ball, Mind "Herman Cappelen's Fixing Language is a fascinating book, chock-full of provocative arguments, on what is fast becoming a (the?) central topic in metaphilosophy: conceptual engineering . [ . . . ] It is an important book - one I very highly recommend. It sets the stage for what will be an exciting metaphilosophical debate over the prospects for conceptual engineering in the years to come." -- Max Deutsch, Analysis "This is a must-read book for scholars interested in gender, armed forces, and militarism." -- Aaron Belkin, Professor of Political Science, San Francisco State University Herman Cappelen is a professor of philosophy at the university of Oslo and at the University of St Andrews. He is one of the co-directors of ConceptLab. He has written and co-authored several books and works in all areas of philosophy.