Conceptual affordances
(How) should they inform conceptual engineering?
S. Marchiori (TU Delft - Ethics & Philosophy of Technology)
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Abstract
Conceptual engineering is a normative approach to conceptual work aimed at the improvement of concepts through evaluation, design, and implementation. To this end, conceptual engineers need to have a measure of what an adequate concept amounts to. Functionalism offers such a standard. Following the functional approach, concepts have functions and are adequate to the extent that they can fulfil their functions. Functional approaches have traditionally operated on the assumption that conceptual engineers ought to concern themselves with what concepts should do. Recent contributions have advocated a more fine-grained and context-sensitive understanding of conceptual functions, extending beyond proper functions to encompass normative and possible functions. Building of these developments, this paper introduces the notion of conceptual affordances, understood as the potential actions, uses, and thoughts that a concept enables or constrains relative to a given user and within a given context. It is argued that an affordances-informed approach can and should supplement and enrich functionalism. Indeed, by attending to conceptual affordances, conceptual engineers can better capture what concepts enable us to do, thus offering a more holistic and ethically attuned framework for conceptual evaluation, design, and implementation.