Louise Antony: Against Amelioration

New Directions in the Philosophy of Language
The 2022/23 Royal Institute of Philosophy London Lecture Series
Early in the twentieth century, philosophy in the English-speaking world took what Richard Rorty later called “The Linguistic Turn” in which language became the central focus of philosophy. In the twenty-first century, the philosophy of language remains strong but has changed considerably. This series examines these new directions, including new questions and methods as well as interest in what other disciplines and world philosophies have to teach us. The speakers are all leading or up-and-coming thinkers representing the full diversity of philosophy in the English-speaking world today. Their talks are aimed as much at the interested generalist as philosophical specialists. All are welcome.
Louise Antony (University of Massachusetts)
Against Amelioration: Why Conceptual Engineering is Impossible, Undesirable and Unnecessary
Many philosophers are calling for the “re-engineering” of certain important concepts, arguing that current concepts do not and cannot serve important political and ethical purposes. For example, some philosophers have argued that our ordinary concept woman is inadequate for feminist politics because it does not incorporate the idea that gender is essentially hierarchical, and thus that the concept should be somehow altered -- "re-engineered" -- so that it does.
I argue that this movement is misguided in several ways: 1) there is no account of what a concept is that makes such re-engineering possible; 2) re-engineering, even if it were possible, would be undesirable; and 3) there is no political or ethical goal that requires re-engineering. Along the way, I'll distinguish the matter of concept acquisition from the matter of concept re-engineering; these are, I suspect, frequently confused.

[@JhonnySerna]

To summarize some of the authors Louise referred to in her discussion of the relationship between concepts and words: Fodor's ideas on "modularity of mind" and "universal cognitive architecture" can be found in his book "The Modularity of Mind" published in 1983. In this book, Fodor argues that the mind consists of specialized cognitive modules that are innate and domain-specific, and that cognitive processes, including language and concepts, are independent of language or culture. Whorf's concepts of "linguistic determinism" and "linguistic relativism" can be found in his essays published in the 1940s, such as "Science and Linguistics" and "Language, Thought, and Reality." In these essays, Whorf suggests that language shapes our thoughts and perceptions, and that different languages shape how speakers perceive and think about the world. He emphasizes the role of language in shaping thoughts, perceptions, and culture.