Dr Sarah Sawyer | University of Sussex
Sarah Sawyer is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sussex, Vice-Chair of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, Deputy Director of the Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
She did her undergraduate work at St Andrews, and her graduate work at Kings College London. She has previously held posts at the Universities of St. Andrews, Kansas, and Nebraska. She works primarily in the philosophy of mind and language.
Title | 'Concepts and Conceptual Engineering'
Abstract:
Conceptual engineering is, prima facie, the engineering of concepts. But what are concepts? And in what sense, if any, can they be engineered?
In this talk I introduce conceptual engineering by providing standard examples and characterizations from the literature. I then distinguish three different understandings of concepts: the psychological account, the semantic account, and the representationalist account.
I go on to argue that disagreements over the nature, target and possible implementation of conceptual engineering are ultimately grounded in the more fundamental disagreement over the nature of concepts.