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.
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An Essay on Conceptual Engineering
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780192546296
Publisert
2020
Utgiver
Oxford University Press Academic UK
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter