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*** SESSION RESTRICTED TO ARCHÉ MEMBERS *** Abstract. — This paper advertises the importance of distinguishing three different foundational projects concerning the epistemic, which we call normative epistemic inquiry, metaepistemic inquiry, and the conceptual ethics of epistemology. We argue that these projects can be distinguished by their contrasting constitutive success conditions. We argue further that because…

Abstract. — The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) is a classification of mental disorders. It is published by the American Psychiatric Association and revised by committees of psychiatrists ever fifteen years or so. This talk considers the DSM as a ‘conceptual building site’. For successful conceptual engineering to be possible we would need…

Abstract. — Precisifications of certain informal concepts could be thought of as instances of conceptual engineering: the concept of a Turing machine (human effective computability), the notion of a Kripke structure (possibility), the Kolmogorov axioms (probability), Tarski’s definition of truth in formal languages, to name just a few. Should we regard the technical notions these formalisms define as…

Abstract. — Let ‘epistemic concepts’ refer to those concepts which express the standards employed in epistemic assessment.   Such concepts offer an interesting test case for conceptual engineering.  On the one hand, they seem like they are tailor-made to be constructed de novo, answering to whichever of the varying interests we might have in epistemic evaluation.  On…

Abstract. — This talk addresses methodological and political challenges of conceptual engineering in cross-cultural perspective. Based on four case studies of interdisciplinary (empirical and philosophical) research projects in Latin America and West Africa, the talk demonstrates the heterogeneity of epistemological and ontological perspectives of stakeholders and the often hidden politics of their inclusion/exclusion in the…

Abstract. — Talk of function often plays a central role in work on conceptual engineering. An appeal to functions can provide much needed standards for evaluating and constructing concepts, according to how well they fulfill their functions, and whether those functions are desirable. However, there has also been a great deal of skepticism about the…