Knowledge and Conceptual Engineering The Epistemology, Ethics, and Politics of Meaning Production

Suppose you could change people's way of thinking about the world at its very roots, by changing the very concepts by means of which they think. Suppose, further, that this would make the world a better place; that would be quite something. Knowledge and Conceptual Engineering is a comprehensive and systematic study of the nature and normativity of conceptual engineering.

This book comprehensively deals with all the central questions in the field: the very possibility of conceptual engineering, its success conditions, the epistemic and moral permissibility of conceptual engineering, the nature of conceptual ignorance and conceptual understanding, and duties to engage in conceptual engineering. It also considers the political aspects, such as engineering social kind concepts, the nature of hermeneutical injustice, and conceptual disinformation. Mona Simion and Christoph Kelp develop a systemic and unified framework centred on conceptual functions, and espouse a functionalist approach that is wholeheartedly optimistic, in that it takes conceptual engineering to be something that we can and should do.

Mona Simion, Professor of Philosophy, Cogito Epistemology Research Centre, University of Glasgow,Christoph Kelp, Professor of Philosophy, Cogito Epistemology Research Centre, University of Glasgow

Mona Simion is Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Cogito Epistemology Research Centre at the University of Glasgow. Her work is in epistemology, philosophy of language, and moral and political philosophy. She is the author of Resistance to Evidence (CUP 2024), Shifty Speech and Independent Thought (OUP 2021) and Sharing Knowledge (CUP 2021, with Christoph Kelp), and co-editor of Reasons, Justification, and Defeat (OUP 2021, with Jessica Brown). She is the Mind Fellow 2018 and the winner of the Young Epistemologist Prize 2021. She has led major research projects funded by the European Research Council and the Leverhulme Trust.


Christoph Kelp is Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Cogito Epistemology Research Centre at the University of Glasgow. His work is in epistemology, philosophy of language, philosophy of science, and ethics. He is the author of The Nature and Normativity of Defeat (CUP 2023), Inquiry, Knowledge, and Understanding (OUP 2021), Sharing Knowledge (CUP 2021, with Mona Simion), and Good Thinking (Routledge 2018), and co-editor of Virtue Theoretic Epistemology (CUP 2020 with John Greco). He is the winner of the Young Epistemologist Prize 2017. He has led major research projects funded by the Leverhulme Trust, the Swiss National Science Foundation, and Research Foundation Flanders.

Part I. Conceptual Engineering: Foundational IssuesChapter 1. Conceptual Engineering: Repair, Replacement, and InnovationChapter 2. The Case Against Conceptual EngineeringChapter 3. Conceptual InnovationPart II. Conceptual Ethics and Conceptual EpistemologyChapter 4. Normative Restrictions on Conceptual EngineeringChapter 5. Conceptual IgnoranceChapter 6. Expressive Power and Duties of Meaning ProductionPart III. Conceptual PoliticsChapter 7. Engineering Social Kind ConceptsChapter 8. Expressive Power, Hermeneutical Injustice, and Conceptual AccessChapter 9. On Conceptual DisinformationConclusion