Event Timeslots (1)
Wednesday
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Concepts are sometimes thought of by philosophers as the „building blocks of thought.“ But what exactly are concepts? While some think of them as mental representations, others think of them as, for instance, abilities. The earlier sessions of this seminar will cover some of these metaphysical debates.
Furthermore, some philosophers, so-called „conceptual engineers,“ argue that we should seek to improve (at least some) concepts. Such conceptual changes can have very real epistemic and sociopolitical stakes: Was it a good thing that our concept „planet“ changed in such a way as to no longer include Pluto? Should our concept „man“ change in such a way as to include transgender men (and vice versa for transgender women)? The remaining sessions of this seminar will focus on various (more „applied“ or „practical“) debates from the field of conceptual engineering.
