Care concept engineering - anyone? [ concepts-maths ii/iii ]

"Concepts are the building blocks for thought, and from Socrates onward one of the goals of philosophers in the Western tradition has been to analyse important philosophical concepts like knowledge, justice, beauty and freedom. For some, the motive was just to get clearer about these fundamental units of thought. For others, the goal was more ambitious. Not content to analyse our concepts, these philosophers hoped to improve them - an old project that has recently acquired a new name: "conceptual engineering". p.98.

"Well, good conceptual engineers, like good engineers in other domains, should start with as much information as possible about which options have already been tried and how well they have worked. If we are going to build a better concept of knowledge, or justice, or moral permissibility, or freedom, we would do well to begin by seeing how these concepts (or their closest analogs) are constructed in cultures around the world, and how well existing varieties work. We would also do well not to restrict ourselves to the millennia old method of cases in studying concepts. Over the last century, linguists, anthropologists, psychologists and neuro-scientists have developed many new methods and technologies for studying concepts. Philosophers who are serious about conceptual engineering should embrace these methods." p.100.

Stich, S., Machery, E., A Possible Future For Philosophy, The Philosopher's Magazine, 1st Quarter 2018. 80: 98-100. 
https://www.stephenstich.com/_files/ugd/0ad9d7_2679b985ce0e43b693d197c775c08e46.pdf

You can call it [conceptual engineering] whatever you wish; in nursing, concept analysis is well established for example. However described, you may find that Hodges' model useful. If you can demonstrate that Hodges' model is not suited to the task, due to its undoubted Cartesian credentials (baggage'), then this would also be progress.

There are no doubt many previous posts this one can be connected to. Most immediately is:

Rediscovering nursing ...? [ concepts-maths i/iii ]

- to follow iii.

This issue of TPM is long gone. In the clear out, I'd drafted these posts.