Abstract. — The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) is a classification of mental disorders. It is published by the American Psychiatric Association and revised by committees of psychiatrists ever fifteen years or so. This talk considers the DSM as a ‘conceptual building site’. For successful conceptual engineering to be possible we would need to be able to  (i) figure out how concepts might be defective and how they might be improved, and (ii) bring about conceptual change. In the literature on conceptual engineering, many seem to assume that (i) is fairly easy, but that (ii) may be very hard. Through a discussion of the DSM revision process I argue that, in at least some cases, bringing about conceptual change is relatively easy, but that figuring out how concepts might be defective and how they might be improved can be very hard. The overall aim of the talk is to help make discussions of conceptual engineering more concrete by focussing on a real life ‘conceptual building site’.

• Zoom meeting ID: 857 3025 53 80
• Zoom password: ACEW20 (Invite link)