Heidegger and Conceptual Engineering
Hannah Boyer
Martin Heidegger was a German thinker who had a profound influence on the field of philosophy, specifically in the areas of language, meaning, and ontology. Despite these areas being vastly different, one thing that connects them is the notion of conceptual engineering. Conceptual engineering seeks to evaluate our current notions of things and linguistic practices and improve them wherever needed. In this paper, I will discuss how the ideas portrayed by Heidegger can connect and enrich Herman Cappelen’s theory that conceptual engineering is worldly in his book Fixing Language: an Essay on Conceptual Engineering.
Hannah is a senior quad-majoring in Forensic Science, Neuroscience, Psychology, and Philosophy. She is the most interested in existentialism and ethics and plans on attending law school next fall.