'You're changing the subject': An unfair objection to conceptual engineering?

Conceptual engineering projects are sometimes criticized for 'changing the subject'. In this paper, I first discuss three strategies that have been proposed to address the change of subject objection. I notice that these strategies fail in similar ways: they all deploy a 'loose' notion of subject ma...

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Publicado en:Philosophical Quarterly Vol. 75; no. 3; pp. 858 - 878
Autor principal: Belleri, Delia
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Oxford University Press / USA Jul2025
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: 'You're changing the subject': An unfair objection to conceptual engineering?
      aug:
        au: Belleri, Delia
        affil: LanCog, Centre of Philosophy, University of Lisbon, Portugal
      su:
        Concept learning
        Semantics
        Dialectic
        Philosophical analysis
        Cappelen, Herman
      sug:
        subj:
          Concept learning
          Semantics
          Dialectic
          Philosophical analysis
          Cappelen, Herman
      keyword:
        concepts
        conceptual engineering
        dialectic
        revision
        subject change
        subject matter
      ab: Conceptual engineering projects are sometimes criticized for 'changing the subject'. In this paper, I first discuss three strategies that have been proposed to address the change of subject objection. I notice that these strategies fail in similar ways: they all deploy a 'loose' notion of subject matter, while the objector can always reply deploying a 'strict' notion. Based on this, I then argue that at least current formulations of the change of subject objection (together with the response strategies just mentioned), create an overall defective dialectic , whereby no progress can be made on either side. After considering how such defective dialectic could be (at least partly) fixed, it is concluded that current formulations of the change of subject objection may be dismissed on dialectical grounds , even though some practical lessons may still be retained from the objection.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
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    language: English
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