Manuel Gustavo Isaac

EPFL - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
  •  3
    As a multi-layered theory of the foundations of “‘mathematicizing’ logic”, Husserlian pure logic is stratified on three levels (sub-theoretical, theoretical, meta-theoretical), which are then themselves transversally split in two sides (apophantic and ontological). This paper investigates how symbolic knowledge works in this framework—viz. in terms of ‘How can the subjective operating with symbols be justified in the process of obtaining objective contents of knowledge?’ To do so, it innovates i…Read more
  •  1
    New Perspectives on Conceptual Engineering (edited book)
    Synthese Library. forthcoming.
  •  4
    From Semiotics to Grammar: Husserl’s Intentionality
    Metodo. International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy 4 (2): 245-265. 2016.
  •  1109
    Conceptual Engineering: A Road Map to Practice
    Philosophy Compass 17 (10): 1-15. 2022.
    This paper discusses the logical space of alternative conceptual engineering projects, with a specific focus on (1) the processes, (2) the targets and goals, and (3) the methods of such projects. We present an overview of how these three aspects interact in the contemporary literature and discuss those alternative projects that have yet to be explored based on our suggested typology. We show how choices about each element in a conceptual engineering project constrain the possibilities for the ot…Read more
  •  341
    Foundational Issues in Conceptual Engineering: Introduction and Overview
    Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 1-9. 2022.
    This is the introduction to the Special Issue ‘Foundational Issues in Conceptual Engineering’. The issue contains contributions by James Andow, Delia Belleri, David Chalmers, Catarina Dutilh Novaes, Eugen Fischer, Viktoria Knoll, Edouard Machery and Amie Thomasson. We, the editors, provide a brief introduction to the main topics of the issue and then summarize its contributions.
  •  388
    Which Concept of Concept for Conceptual Engineering?
    Erkenntnis: An International Journal of Scientific Philosophy 88 (5): 2145-2169. 2023.
    Conceptual engineering is the method for assessing and improving our concepts. However, little has been written about how best to conceive of concepts for the purposes of conceptual engineering. In this paper, I aim to fill this foundational gap, proceeding in three main steps: First, I propose a methodological framework for evaluating the conduciveness of a given concept of concept for conceptual engineering. Then, I develop a typology that contrasts two competing concepts of concept that can b…Read more
  •  336
    Broad-Spectrum Conceptual Engineering
    Ratio: An International Journal for Analytic Philosophy 34 (4): 286-302. 2021.
    Conceptual engineering is the method for assessing and improving our representational devices. On its ‘broad-spectrum’ version, it is expected to be appropriately applicable to any of our representation-involving cognitive activities, with major consequences for our whole cognitive life. This paper is about the theoretical foundations of conceptual engineering thus characterised. With a view to ensuring the actionability of conceptual engineering as a broad-spectrum method, it addresses the issu…Read more
  •  375
    What Should Conceptual Engineering Be All About?
    Philosophia: A Global Journal of Philosophy 49 (5): 2041-2051. 2021.
    Conceptual engineering is commonly characterized as the method for assessing and improving our representational devices. Little has been said, however, on how best to construe these representational devices—in other words, on what conceptual engineering should be all about. This paper tackles this problem with a basic strategy: First, by presenting a taxonomy of the different possible subject matters for conceptual engineering; then, by comparatively assessing them and selecting the most conduci…Read more
  •  773
    Post-Truth Conceptual Engineering
    Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 67 (1): 199-214. 2024.
    Conceptual engineering is the method for assessing and improving our concepts. Some have recently claimed that the implementation of such method in the form of ameliorative projects is truth-driven and should thus be epistemically constrained, ultimately at least (Simion 2018; cf. Podosky 2018). This paper challenges that claim on the assumption of a social constructionist analysis of ideologies, and provides an alternative, pragmatic and cognitive framework for determining the legitimacy of ame…Read more
  • Symbolic Knowledge in Husserlian Pure Logic
    In Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen & Mohammad Shafiei (eds.), Peirce and Husserl: Mutual Insights on Logic, Mathematics and Cognition, Springer Verlag. 2019.
  •  44
    Signe et signification à l’aune de la dichotomie syntaxe / sémantique
    Corela. Cognition, Représentation, Langage 16 (HS). 2015.
    Cet article a pour objet l’analyse de trois types de théorisations de la signification basées sur un modèle binaire du signe. Celles de Frege, Husserl et Saussure. Relevant d’un même paradigme, les deux premières sont confrontées en tant que s’y développent deux conceptions opposées de la signification – extensionnelle chez Frege, intensionnelle chez Husserl – contribuant à la mise en place, selon des perspectives opposées, de la dualisation de la syntaxe et de la sémantique. Relativement à cett…Read more
  •  1243
    How To Conceptually Engineer Conceptual Engineering?
    Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 1-24. 2020.
    Conceptual engineering means to provide a method to assess and improve our concepts working as cognitive devices. But conceptual engineering still lacks an account of what concepts are (as cognitive devices) and of what engineering is (in the case of cognition). And without such prior understanding of its subject matter, or so it is claimed here, conceptual engineering is bound to remain useless, merely operating as a piecemeal approach, with no overall grip on its target domain. The purpose of …Read more
  •  60
    How Do We Know Things with Signs? A Model of Semiotic Intentionality
    IfCoLog Journal of Logics and Their Applications 10 (4): 3683-3704. 2017.
    Intentionality may be dealt with in two different ways: either ontologically, as an ordinary relation to some extraordinary objects, or epistemologically, as an extraordinary relation to some ordinary objects. This paper endorses the epistemological view in order to provide a model of semiotic intentionality defined as the meaning-and-cognizing process that constitutes to power of the mind to be about something on the basis of a semiotic system. After a short introduction that presents the compo…Read more
  •  60
    L'idée de la logique formelle dans les appendices VI à X du volume 12 des Husserliana
    History and Philosophy of Logic 36 (4): 321-345. 2015.
    Au terme des Prolégomènes, Husserl formule son idée de la logique pure en la structurant sur deux niveaux: l'un, supérieur, de la logique formelle fondé transcendantalement et d'un point de vue épistémologique par l'autre, inférieur, d'une morphologie des catégories. Seul le second de ces deux niveaux est traité dans les Recherches logiques, tandis que les travaux théoriques en logique formelle menés par Husserl à la même époque en paraissent plutôt indépendants. Cet article est consacré à ces t…Read more
  •  49
    Toward a Phenomenological Epistemology of Mathematical Logic
    Synthèse: An International Journal for Epistemology, Methodology and Philosophy of Science 195 (2): 863-874. 2018.
    This paper deals with Husserl’s idea of pure logic as it is coined in the Logical Investigations. First, it exposes the formation of pure logic around a conception of completeness ; then, it presents intentionality as the keystone of such a structuring ; and finally, it provides a systematic reconstruction of pure logic from the semiotic standpoint of intentionality. In this way, it establishes Husserlian pure logic as a phenomenological epistemology of mathematical logic.
  •  30
    Widersinn in Husserl’s Pure Logic
    Logica Universalis 10 (4): 419-430. 2016.
    The purpose of this paper is to provide a unitary typology for the incompatibilities of meanings at stake on different levels of Husserlian pure logic—namely, between systems of axioms and pure morphology of meanings; I show that they perfectly match by converging on the notion of Widersinn.