Pragmatic Genealogy as Conceptual Reverse-Engineering

Matthieu Queloz (Oxford University, University of Basel)

Though conceptual engineering is a forward-looking enterprise, the thought has been gaining traction that it should be guided by a prior understanding of the functions or points our concepts serve. In this talk, I explore some of the motivations for this backward-looking enterprise of conceptual reverse-engineering. I then argue that there is an under-appreciated tradition which offers a methodologically controlled way of doing conceptual reverse-engineering: the tradition of pragmatic genealogy. I develop an interpretation of pragmatic genealogy which makes sense of the seemingly incongruous way in which it combines state-of-nature fictions with real history.