Conceptual Innovation

Abstract The central aim of this chapter is to argue not only that conceptual engineering is possible but also that it is not even distinctively hard. In order to achieve this, this chapter will develop an approach to conceptual engineering that has two key components. First, it proposes a reorientation of the conceptual engineering project away from fixing conceptual defects and towards bringing about conceptual innovation. Second, it offers an account of when conceptual engineering is successful in terms of etiological functions. The chapter then turns to the arguments that conceptual engineering is impossible and shows that, on this novel approach, none of them stand up to scrutiny.