Ming-Jung Chang

Conceptual Engineering promises to deliver a new (or unduly neglected) way of doing philosophy whereby progress is to be made by assessing and improving our representational devices (words, concepts, meanings). This methodology faces a famous objection. Namely, Strawson’s Objection: ‘To do [Conceptual Engineering] is not to solve the typical philosophical problem, but to change the subject’ (Strawson [1963]. “Carnap’s Views on Conceptual Systems versus Natural Languages in Analytic Philosophy.” In The Philosophy of Rudolf Carnap, edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp, 503–518. La Salle: Open Court). Despite being over sixty years old, this Objection has yet to receive a fully satisfactory treatment – or so it will be argued. In fact, there are really two worries at large here. There is Strawson’s original worry plus a strengthened, deeper problem: even if you are not changing the subject in doing Conceptual Engineering, you are still not solving the original problem. This deeper objection is The Old Problem Problem. The primary goal here is to offer a response to this Problem which, in turn, delivers a new solution to Strawson’s Objection. This then yields a response to a related worry (The New Problem Problem): Conceptual Engineers are just answering questions that weren’t being asked. The aim here is not to defend Conceptual Engineering as such but to gain a better (more pluralist) picture of what this new approach to philosophy does, and does not, involve.

Kant’s Moral World offers a detailed defense of Immanuel Kant’s practical metaphysics. While Kant is widely recognized for his moral philosophy, this study reveals how his ethical framework also serves as a foundation for answering some of the most profound metaphysical questions: Are we truly free? Do we have immortal souls? Can we rationally believe in God? Through a careful and systematic interpretation of Kant’s critical works, the book grounds his approach to these questions in the broader development of the concept of pure reason, which begins in the Critique of Pure Reason and stretches through the Groundwork and Critique of Practical Reason. Jessica Tizzard argues that our practical cognition of the moral law and transcendental freedom exemplifies pure reason’s real use, which ultimately explains the primacy of practical over theoretical reason. This primacy, in turn, provides rational grounds for affirming the existence of the soul and God as necessary conditions for the realization of a moral world, encapsulated in Kant’s idea of the highest good. Combining rigorous textual analysis with philosophical clarity, this monograph offers a compelling new interpretation of Kant’s metaphysical project. It invites scholars and students alike to reconsider the depth and coherence of Kant’s vision, where morality and metaphysics are not separate domains, but mutually reinforcing aspects of human reason.

Our information and communication environment has fallen short of the ideals that networked global communication might have served. Existing recommender systems very likely contribute to this shortfall. In this paper, which draws on the normative tools of philosophy of computing, informed by empirical and technical insights from computer science, we make the moral case for an alternative approach. We argue that existing recommenders incentivise mass surveillance, concentrate power, fall prey to narrow behaviourism, and compromise user agency. Rather than just trying to avoid algorithms entirely, or to incrementally alter the current paradigm, researchers and engineers should explore an alternative approach: the use of large language models (LLMs) and LLM-based agents to source and curate content that matches users’ preferences and values, expressed in natural language. The use of Language Model Agents for recommendation poses its own challenges, including those related to candidate generation, computational efficiency, preference modelling, and prompt injection. Nonetheless, if implemented successfully, these systems could: guide us through the digital public sphere without relying on mass surveillance; shift power away from platforms towards users; optimise for what matters instead of just for behavioural proxies; and scaffold our agency instead of undermining it.