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FRIHUMSAM-Fri prosj.st. hum og sam

Conceptual engineering

Alternative title: Conceptual Engineering

Awarded: NOK 11.6 mill.

In any inquiry, whether scientific or practical, we use concepts to frame questions about reality. An obvious way in which the inquiry can be successful is by yielding answers to the resulting questions. A far less obvious form of success has to do with asking the "right" questions, formulated using the "right" concepts. It is clear that many great leaps in human insight and understanding have been associated with the forging of "better" concepts, which has enabled us to ask "better" questions: In physics, the differentiation of weight and mass; in mathematics, the Cantorian notion of "size" or number; in economics, the articulation of the contemporary concept of money; in social science the concept of gender, as opposed to sex. The nature of that process is the topic of this project. Our project will be the first systematic investigation ever undertaken of this often ignored, but tremendously important, dimension of the success of any inquiry. Our goal is to develop a set of overarching theoretical frameworks and then apply these to the theoretical and practical domains. The project is interdisciplinary at its core: The crafting and assessment of concepts is a distinctively philosophical skill but also at the center of any intellectual endeavor, as illustrated by the above examples. What is missing from all these specific endeavors is an overarching framework for how it is done. Finally, our project will have a direct bearing on questions outside of academia and impact on social and public policy: One of the core group members is already directly involved in relevant forms of policy formation and can (attempt to) directly apply our theories in practice. In the reporting period, Cappelen has completed a new monograph on conceptual engineering, the second in a trilogy. This one is on Linguistic Abandonment, and it builds on Fixing Language. The book is called "The Concept of Democracy: An Essay on Conceptual Amelioration and Abandonment". It is forthcoming on Oxford University Press in the fall of 2023. The book argues that the concept of democracy is incoherent and should be abandoned. Linnebo and his collaborators have in the reporting period published an edited volume "The One and the Many" at Oxford University Press. Sterken has in the reporting period written several papers on online communication.

Our goal in starting this project was to provide the basis for a new sub-field of philosophy: Conceptual Engineering. We aimed for this project to have work done at UiO as its basis. Both of these goals have been achieved. Conceptual Engineering is now an established part of philosophical methodology (in a recent and authoritative study of what philosophers believe, close to 30% said that conceptual engineering was one of the most important methods in philosophy). The most cited work in conceptual engineering is written by member of this project. That project has also succeeded in bringing together a broad range of sub-fields of philosophy: philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of mathematics, moral philosophy, and political philosophy. A case can be made that this project has (contributed to) a significant change in direction of philosophy in the 21st Century.

In any inquiry, whether scientific or practical, we use concepts to frame questions about reality. An obvious way in which the inquiry can be successful is by yielding answers to the resulting questions. A far less obvious form of success has to do with asking the "right" questions, formulated using the "right" concepts. It is clear that many great leaps in human insight and understanding have been associated with the forging of "better" concepts, which has enabled us to ask "better" questions: In physics, the differentiation of weight and mass; in mathematics, the Cantorian notion of "size" or number; in economics, the articulation of the contemporary concept of money; in social science the concept of gender, as opposed to sex. The nature of that process is the topic of this project. Our project will be the first systematic investigation ever undertaken of this often ignored, but tremendously important, dimension of the success of any inquiry. Our goal is to develop a set of overarching theoretical frameworks and then apply these to the theoretical and practical domains. The project is interdisciplinary at its core: The crafting and assessment of concepts is a distinctively philosophical skill but also at the center of any intellectual endeavor, as illustrated by the above examples. What is missing from all these specific endeavors is an overarching framework for how it is done. Finally, our project will have a direct bearing on questions outside of academia and impact on social and public policy: One of the core group members is already directly involved in relevant forms of policy formation and can (attempt to) directly apply our theories in practice

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FRIHUMSAM-Fri prosj.st. hum og sam