Projects
Experimental Conceptual Engineering
At rock bottom, conceptual engineering is about improving how people talk or think. This project explores how conceptual engineering needs to be an empirical process in order to succeed. One strand is developing an experimental framework to test conceptual revision and replacement. Another strand is arguing, from the armchair, that all conceptual engineering projects need to be sensitive to empirical issues.
See my ESPP 2022 Poster on Semantic Externalism, Experimental Philosophy, and Conceptual Engineering
How does "true" modify Dual Character Concepts?
The adjective form of "true" is weird. Without context, it can felicitously modify some nouns ("true soldier", "true art") but not others ("true table", "true waiter". This project with Kevin Reuter is trying to sort out how "true" modifies nouns, why it only works sometimes, and related methodological questions related to the Dual Character Concept literature.
Virtual Reality vs Thought Experiments
People do not make the same judgements in reaction to written trolley case as they do trolley cases in VR. This project is asking what this says about the epistemology of thought experiments and VR. Using qualitative analysis, Kathryn Francis and I are testing how professional philosophers react to VR trolley cases. See my post at the Junkyard for the inspiration for the project and some of my thoughts on the epistemic virtues of thought experiments.
