Horia Lixandru
ILLC, University of Amsterdam
Hermeneutical injustice, as defined by Miranda Fricker, results from a gap in our collective conceptual resources. This gap means that sometimes we cannot properly understand our experiences in the right normative light, nor render them intelligible to others. Parallel to Fricker’s concerns, conceptual engineering has developed as an attractive metaphilosophical position, aiming at explicitly assessing, ameliorating, and introducing concepts according to various epistemic, functional, or social criteria. However, some have questioned the effectiveness of conceptual engineering in the case of social or political oppression, claiming that changes in material conditions, rather than changes in concepts are the main driving force behind the improvement of the social standing of various groups. In this paper, I will be using the case of hermeneutical injustice to argue for the importance of engaging in conceptual engineering, mainly conceptual innovation. I argue that conceptual engineering has the potential to reveal previously invisible social injustices, thus rendering our experiences intelligible to others, assimilating it into a form of ideology critique, and that it has agenda-setting potential, thus allowing marginalised groups to focus and to better draw attention to some relevant phenomena of their lives. Conceptual engineering is an indispensable tool in promoting hermeneutical justice, and we should explicitly engage in engineering projects for this very reason.
Chair: Nicolas Cuevas-Alvear
Time: September 12th, 11:20 – 11:50
Location: SR 1.005
SOPhiA 2026 