Conceptual engineering is the enterprise of evaluating and improving our representational devices. But how should we conduct this enterprise? One increasingly popular answer to this question proposes that conceptual engineering should proceed in terms of the functions of our representational devices. In this paper, we argue that the best way of understanding this suggestion is in terms of normative functions, where normative functions of concepts are, roughly, things that they allow us to do that matter normatively (for example, things in virtue of which we have normative reasons to have these concepts). Not only does this introduce a novel view about functions to the literature. This proposal also fits more naturally than the alternatives with conceptual engineering as a normative enterprise, and it allows functions to play all of the explanatory roles assigned to them in the conceptual engineering literature. Our discussion of the explanatory advantages of normative functions also advances the understanding of the ways in which concepts can be authoritative, what this means for conceptual engineering, and highlights the importance of political philosophy for thinking about conceptual engineering in practice. Furthermore, the paper explicates what kind of role considerations about function can and should actually play in conceptual engineering.

中文翻译：

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概念工程：重要的事情

概念工程是评估和改进我们的代表性设备的事业。但我们该如何经营这个企业呢？对这个问题的一个越来越流行的答案提出，概念工程应该根据我们代表性设备的功能进行。在本文中，我们认为理解这一建议的最佳方式是从规范功能的角度来理解，其中概念的规范功能大致是指它们允许我们规范地做某件事（例如，我们凭借它而做的事情）。具有这些概念的规范理由）。这不仅为文献引入了关于函数的新颖观点。该提议也比概念工程作为规范企业的替代方案更自然地适合，并且它允许功能发挥概念工程文献中分配给它们的所有解释性角色。我们对规范功能的解释优势的讨论也促进了对概念具有权威性的方式的理解，这对概念工程意味着什么，并强调了政治哲学对于在实践中思考概念工程的重要性。此外，本文还阐述了关于功能的考虑可以并且应该在概念工程中实际发挥什么样的作用。