Conceptual Engineering: A Footnote to Plato

Abstract If concepts are to what the predicates in our language refer, then Plato would say that concepts are nonspatiotemporal entities, called “Forms,” and as such cannot be created, changed, or destroyed. Thus, if conceptual engineering requires that concepts can be created or changed, then Plato could not accurately be called a conceptual engineer. On the other hand, Plato did think that we can create or change the sights and sounds we use as tools by means of our shared thinking which refer to those unchanging concepts. Those sights and sounds are the symbols, that is, the written and spoken language, that we use in order to communicate with one another about the things that exist. Plato, then, thought of a shared language as an educated guess about the way the world in fact is. We agree to use those symbols because we have good reasons to believe that the closer our shared language is to the way the world in fact is, the more beneficial using that language will be for us in accomplishing our ultimate goal of having the best life we can possibly have. Therefore, if concepts are not to what the predicates in our language refer, but instead, are the educated guesses as to what those eternally unchanging Forms are, then Plato would be a conceptual engineer par excellence as he did think that we can and do create and revise our educated guesses as we learn more about the way the world in fact is.