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  1. Understanding Artificial Agency.Leonard Dung - forthcoming - Philosophical Quarterly.
    Which artificial intelligence (AI) systems are agents? To answer this question, I propose a multidimensional account of agency. According to this account, a system's agency profile is jointly determined by its level of goal-directedness and autonomy as well as is abilities for directly impacting the surrounding world, long-term planning and acting for reasons. Rooted in extant theories of agency, this account enables fine-grained, nuanced comparative characterizations of artificial agency. I show that this account has multiple important virtues and is more (...)
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  • Conceptual Engineering and Philosophy of Technology: Amelioration or Adaptation?Jeroen Hopster & Guido Löhr - 2023 - Philosophy and Technology 36 (4):1-17.
    Conceptual Engineering (CE) is thought to be generally aimed at ameliorating deficient concepts. In this paper, we challenge this assumption: we argue that CE is frequently undertaken with the orthogonal aim of _conceptual adaptation_. We develop this thesis with reference to the interplay between technology and concepts. Emerging technologies can exert significant pressure on conceptual systems and spark ‘conceptual disruption’. For example, advances in Artificial Intelligence raise the question of whether AIs are agents or mere objects, which can be construed (...)
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  • Local Conceptual Engineering in a Linguistic Subgroup and the Implementation Problem.Takaaki Matsui - 2024 - In Piotr Stalmaszczyk, Conceptual Engineering: Methodological and Metaphilosophical Issues. Brill. pp. 117–133.
    In this chapter, I examine Max Deutsch’s dilemma for the implementation of newly engineered concepts. In the debate over this dilemma, the goal of conceptual engineering tends to be set either too high or too low. As a result, implementation tends to be seen as either very unlikely to succeed or too easily achievable. This chaper aims to offer a way out of this dilemma. I argue that the success conditions for implementation can be better understood if we distinguish between (...)
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  • What is conceptual engineering good for? The argument from nameability.Steffen Koch & Gary Lupyan - forthcoming - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research.
    It is often assumed that how we talk about the world matters a great deal. This is one reason why conceptual engineers seek to improve our linguistic practices by advocating novel uses of our words, or by inventing new ones altogether. A core idea shared by conceptual engineers is that by changing our language in this way, we can reap all sorts of cognitive and practical benefits, such as improving our theorizing, combating hermeneutical injustice, or promoting social emancipation. But how (...)
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  • Conceptual engineering, predictive processing, and a new implementation problem.Guido Löhr & Christian Michel - 2024 - Mind and Language 39 (2):201-219.
    According to predictive processing, an increasingly influential paradigm in cognitive science, the function of the brain is to minimize the prediction error of its sensory input. Conceptual engineering is the practice of assessing and changing concepts or word meanings. We contribute to both strands of research by proposing the first cognitive account of conceptual engineering, using the predictive processing framework. Our model reveals a new kind of implementation problem as prediction errors are only minimized if enough agents embrace conceptual changes. (...)
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  • Ameliorative projects, psychological essentialism, and the power of nouns.Steffen Koch - forthcoming - Mind and Language.
    Ameliorative projects design and propagate new linguistic content for some expressions we use for political or social justice purposes. These projects are often driven by an anti-essentialist agenda: they aim to debunk the idea that social categories such as “woman,” “man,” or “race” are constituted by natural essences. But critics argue that nouns tend to trigger essentialist thinking. And because ameliorative projects typically retain nouns, it is argued that these projects cannot achieve their anti-essentialist goals. In response, I argue that (...)
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  • Socially disruptive technologies and epistemic injustice.J. K. G. Hopster - 2024 - Ethics and Information Technology 26 (1):1-8.
    Recent scholarship on technology-induced ‘conceptual disruption’ has spotlighted the notion of a conceptual gap. Conceptual gaps have also been discussed in scholarship on epistemic injustice, yet up until now these bodies of work have remained disconnected. This article shows that ‘gaps’ of interest to both bodies of literature are closely related, and argues that a joint examination of conceptual disruption and epistemic injustice is fruitful for both fields. I argue that hermeneutical marginalization—a skewed division of hermeneutical resources, which serves to (...)
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  • Conceptual infrastructure and conceptual engineering.Steffen Koch & Jochen Briesen - 2023 - In Aaron Pinnix, Axel Volmar, Fernando Esposito & Nora Binder, Rethinking Infrastructure Across the Humanities. Transcript. pp. 75-86.
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  • Conceptual Engineering and the Dynamics of Linguistic Intervention.Adam F. Gibbons - forthcoming - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy.
    The Implementation Problem for conceptual engineering is, roughly, the problem conceptual engineers face when attempting to bring about the conceptual change they support. An important aspect of this problem concerns the extent to which attempting to implement concepts can lead to unintended negative consequences. Not only can conceptual engineers fail to implement their proposals, but their interventions can produce outcomes directly counter to their goals. It is therefore important to think carefully about the prospect of attempted implementation leading to unintended (...)
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  • Engineering the trust machine. Aligning the concept of trust in the context of blockchain applications.Eva Pöll - 2024 - Ethics and Information Technology 26 (2):1-16.
    Complex technology has become an essential aspect of everyday life. We rely on technology as part of basic infrastructure and repeatedly for tasks throughout the day. Yet, in many cases the relation surpasses mere reliance and evolves to trust in technology. A new, disruptive technology is blockchain. It claims to introduce trustless relationships among its users, aiming to eliminate the need for trust altogether—even being described as “the trust machine”. This paper presents a proposal to adjust the concept of trust (...)
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  • Conceptual Engineering Using Large Language Models.Bradley Allen - forthcoming - In Vincent C. Müller, Aliya R. Dewey, Leonard Dung & Guido Löhr, Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence: The State of the Art. Berlin: SpringerNature.
    We describe a method, based on Jennifer Nado’s proposal for classification procedures as targets of conceptual engineering, that implements such procedures by prompting a large language model. We apply this method, using data from the Wikidata knowledge graph, to evaluate stipulative definitions related to two paradigmatic conceptual engineering projects: the International Astronomical Union’s redefinition of PLANET and Haslanger’s ameliorative analysis of WOMAN. Our results show that classification procedures built using our approach can exhibit good classification performance and, through the generation (...)
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  • Heavy-duty conceptual engineering.Steffen Koch & Jakob Ohlhorst - forthcoming - Noûs.
    Conceptual engineering is the process of assessing and improving our conceptual repertoire. Some authors have claimed that introducing or revising concepts through conceptual engineering can go as far as expanding the realm of thinkable thoughts and thus enable us to form beliefs, hypotheses, wishes, or desires that we are currently unable to form. If true, this would allow conceptual engineers to contribute to solving stubborn problems – problems that cannot be solved with our current ways of thinking. We call this (...)
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  • Socially Disruptive Technologies and Conceptual Engineering.Herman Veluwenkamp, Jeroen Hopster, Sebastian Köhler & Guido Löhr - 2024 - Ethics and Information Technology 26 (4):1-6.
    In this special issue, we focus on the connection between conceptual engineering and the philosophy of technology. Conceptual engineering is the enterprise of introducing, eliminating, or revising words and concepts. The philosophy of technology examines the nature and significance of technology. We investigate how technologies such as AI and genetic engineering (so-called “socially disruptive technologies”) disrupt our practices and concepts, and how conceptual engineering can address these disruptions. We also consider how conceptual engineering can enhance the practice of ethical design. (...)
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  • Arguing with Engineered Concepts. An Introduction to Conceptual Engineering and the Strategies of Definition.Martin Hinton & Fabrizio Macagno - 2024 - Topoi 43 (5):1569-1576.
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  • What is conceptual hypocrisy? Is it problematic?Xindi Ye - 2024 - Topoi 43 (5):1685-1695.
    In conceptual engineering, a hypocritical argument is an argument that uses a concept to argue against the use of that very concept (Burgess and Plunkett 2013; Burgess 2020). Call this sort of hypocrisy ‘conceptual hypocrisy’. Should we accept conceptual hypocrisy? My response has a negative and a positive part. In the negative part, I review attempts to problematise or vindicate conceptual hypocrisy by subsuming it under existing argumentative paradigms. I argue that these attempts fail. In the positive part, I outline (...)
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  • Conceptual Baggage and How to Unpack It.Emilia L. Wilson - 2024 - Dissertation, University of St Andrews
    Our interpretive resources enable us to make sense of, navigate, and communicate about our shared world. These resources not only carve the world up into categories, but also guide how we, individually and collectively, are oriented towards it. In this thesis, I examine how these resources, and the dispositions they guide, may be harmful. A vital kind of interpretive resources are frames, which equip us with unified perspectives on the world. Perspectives are suites of open-ended interpretive (inquisitive, attentional, inferential, evaluative, (...)
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