Conceptual Sovereignty || Ajinkya Deshmukh

This talk was given by Dr. Ajinkya Deshmukh (Teaching Assistant in Philosophy, University of Manchester) on 21 September 2024.
Abstract: Philosophical treatment of conceptual engineering centres around normative assessments about how to change or introduce representational devices in service of specific goods and goals. Who gets to make these normative assessments, and who should, is an important question that is overlooked. I propose and defend the notion of conceptual sovereignty, the idea that members of epistemically oppressed groups must have a say in conceptual engineering or amelioration projects about them. I build on three theses from standpoint epistemology to establish the need for conceptual sovereignty: the situated knowledge thesis, the epistemic privilege thesis and the achievement thesis. I show why conceptual sovereignty is important for the groups whose identities conceptual engineering projects aim to ameliorate. Finally I defend conceptual sovereignty against three objections: the problem of internalised oppression; the problem of sovereignty over hateful concepts; and the problem of weaponising conceptual sovereignty.