The 44th Annual Spindel Conference

Conceptual Revisionisms

Friday, October 23 and Saturday, October 24

University Center, Fountain View Room

From Plato to 21st century ‘conceptual engineers,’ from the Ancient Greek sophists to American pragmatists, philosophers have asked not only what our concepts actually do, but what they should do—should they track common sense, carve the world at the joints, eliminate confusion, unmask cultural pretensions, challenge entrenched power, advance social justice, or even serve as propaganda? Should our conceptual standards include only truth, or should they include, e.g., usefulness, economy, beauty, moral worth, political efficacy? Questions like these are as old as western philosophy, and they remain as urgent now as ever. This conference aims to create a dialogue on these questions with thinkers working across philosophy’s history.