Exeter College Fellow publishes new book with Oxford University Press

Professor Mona Simion, Michael Cohen Fellow in Philosophy at Exeter College, has published a major new book with Oxford University Press. Co-authored with Christoph Kelp, Knowledge and Conceptual Engineering: The Epistemology, Ethics, and Politics of Meaning Production offers a comprehensive and systematic account of conceptual engineering – the study of how concepts shape the ways people think about and understand the world. 

The book examines some of the field’s central philosophical and political questions, including whether conceptual engineering is possible, what makes it successful, and when it may be epistemically or morally justified. It also explores broader social and political themes such as conceptual ignorance and understanding, hermeneutical injustice, conceptual disinformation, and the engineering of social kind concepts. 

Drawing together these questions within a unified framework centred on conceptual functions, Professor Simion and Professor Kelp advance a functionalist approach to conceptual engineering that is both systematic and optimistic. The book argues that conceptual engineering is not only possible, but something people can and should actively engage in as part of improving collective understanding and public discourse. 

In the publisher’s words, the study asks readers to imagine “changing people’s way of thinking about the world at its very roots, by changing the very concepts by means of which they think” – and considers how such changes might contribute to a better world. 

Knowledge and Conceptual Engineering: The Epistemology, Ethics, and Politics of Meaning Production is available to purchase now from Blackwells and other booksellers.