Conceptual engineering: Conceptual innovation via conceptual refinement

Abstract

Mona Simion and Christoph Kelp (2020) have recently challenged the traditional conceptual engineering project. They defend a reorientation of this project that moves away from correcting conceptual shortcomings and emphasizes conceptual innovation instead. Central to their proposal is the role played by etiological functions. The present paper argues that this approach leaves them without a specific mechanism for conceptual innovation. It then proposes one such mechanism, which operates independently of functions, by identifying the crucial role of conceptual refinement. After developing the refinement-based approach, it illustrates how this approach works by considering instances of refined conceptual change from mathematics and logic as well as the sciences, and argues that the approach avoids the challenges faced by the function-based view.