Faculty Scholarship Series:

Sabbatical Presentation - Metaphysical agency in conceptual engineering 

Conceptual engineers take seriously the claim that concepts like family, disability, race, and gender literally shape reality. But what is it that these engineers actually do when they go about engineering concepts? Hint: they don’t need a literal toolbox to do it. I want to suggest that they engage in a distinctive kind of agency. Rather than take the world as given, they exercise their agency by involving metaphysical principles, norms, and theories to reason, to make decisions, and to act to shape reality. They act as agents with the world as a metaphysical patient that deserves consideration. We are all metaphysically responsible and accountable for exercising this kind of agency well and we succeed to varying degrees. Thus, it’s a form of agency to which we should attend.  

Presented by:

Roxanne Marie Kurtz

Associate Professor of Philosophy