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2025 Climate Lecture presents, Prof. Lidal Dror (Princeton), "What's Wrong with 'Conceptual Amelioration'?"
Thursday, March 13, 2025, 03:00pm - 05:00pm
Prof. Lidal Dror (Princeton)
What’s Wrong with ‘Conceptual Amelioration’?
Abstract:
Social philosophy has become awash with ‘conceptual amelioration’. Conceptual ameliorators often presuppose that the ‘concepts’ we employ play an integral role in maintaining injustice and oppression, and that correspondingly ameliorating various concepts is essential for achieving justice. I argue that such a view evinces an erroneous idealist view of social change and of oppression. The idea that conceptual amelioration is central for social change is misguided.
Moreover, even ignoring the flaws of an idealist view of social change and oppression, conceptual amelioration tends to be poorly done on its own terms. Ameliorators fail to engage in the empirical work required to make well-substantiated claims about how conceptual amelioration will play out in our non-ideal world. Further, ameliorators’ focus on postulating meanings of ‘concepts’ distracts from important normative theorizing about justice. In critically engaging with conceptual amelioration, I hope to show how it can be better practiced. More importantly, I think that seeing how conceptual amelioration (often) goes wrong offers important guidance for how philosophers should engage in ideology critique.
