Ethan Landes
Biographic Data
| ID | 1015152 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ethan Landes |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ethan |
| FAMILY NAME | Landes |
| SIGNATURE | LANDES E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Zurich |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1186-1717 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 3 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Conceptual Engineering Should be Empirical
Conceptual engineering is a philosophical method that aims to design and spread conceptual and linguistic devices to cause meaningful changes in the world. So far, however, conceptual engineers have struggled to successfully spread the conceptual and linguistic entities they have designed to their target communities. This paper argues that conceptual engineering is far more likely to succeed if it incorporates empirical data and empirical methods…
People defer to AI moral advice, but not blindly
As AI large language models (LLMs) become increasingly embedded in everyday technologies, should we be concerned about their capacity to influence human beliefs - particularly in the moral domain? Being persuaded because one is convinced by the LLM-generated reasons can support the moral and intellectual growth of users, while being persuaded because one defers to the LLM can prevent, or even reverse, growth and understanding. In three studies, w…
Conceptual Revision in Action
Conceptual engineering is the practice of revising concepts to improve how people talk and think. Its ability to improve talk and thought ultimately hinges on the successful dissemination of desired conceptual changes. Unfortunately, the field has been slow to develop methods to directly test what barriers stand in the way of propagation and what methods will most effectively propagate desired conceptual change. In order to test such questions, t…
Is it a tastytaste or a greedgrab? The importance of label choice in language design
Everyone who has come up with a new idea or concept faces the same problem: they need to call it something. This choice is simultaneously arbitrary and important. The new idea could have any name, but some names for it are clearly better than others. This paper builds upon existing research on the perceived relationship between label and word meaning to better understand the way that label choice affects language design, particularly conceptual e…
Rage against the authority machines: How to design artificial moral advisors for moral enhancement
This paper aims to clear up the epistemology of learning morality from artificial moral advisors (AMAs). We start with a brief consideration of what counts as moral enhancement and consider the risk of deskilling raised by machines that offer moral advice. We then shift focus to the epistemology of moral advice and show when and under what conditions moral advice can lead to enhancement. We argue that people’s motivational dispositions are enhanc…
Philosophical Methodology: From Data to Theory
Conceptual engineering is old news
According to a prevailing view, conceptual engineering introduces a revolutionary philosophical methodology, challenging traditional conceptual analysis. However, in our paper, we argue that closer scrutiny reveals not only the falsity but also the inherent ambiguity of this narrative. We explore four interpretations of the ‘Anti-Novelty Claim’, the claim that conceptual engineering is not a new way of doing philosophy. Discussing the Anti-Novelt…
What’s the Point of Authors
In this paper, I want to start to untangle some of the philosophical issues associated with our practices of ascribing authorship for collaborative work, with an eye to formulating better guidelines for authorship. I will focus on the following questions: 1. What epistemic, social, and ethical functions are played by our practices of ascribing authorship for academic papers? 2. What ways of ascribing authorship would best address these functions?…
Philosophical producers, philosophical consumers, and the metaphilosophical value of original texts
In recent years, two competing methodological frameworks have developed in the study of the epistemology of philosophy. The traditional camp, led by experimental philosophy and its allies, has made inferences about the epistemology of philosophy based on the reactions, or intuitions, people have to works of philosophy. In contrast, multiple authors have followed the lead of Deutsch and Cappelen by setting aside experimental data in favor of infer…
The threat of the intuition-shaped hole
The assumption that philosophers rely on intuitions to justify their philosophical positions has recently come under substantial criticism. In order to protect philosophy from experimental findings that suggest that intuitions are epistemically problematic, a number of metaphilosophers have argued that intuitions play no substantial epistemic role in philosophy. This paper focuses on attempts to deny intuitions’ epistemic role through exegetical …
What’s the Point of Authors
In this paper, I want to start to untangle some of the philosophical issues associated with our practices of ascribing authorship for collaborative work, with an eye to formulating better guidelines for authorship. I will focus on the following questions: 1. What epistemic, social, and ethical functions are played by our practices of ascribing authorship for academic papers? 2. What ways of ascribing authorship would best address these functions?…
Philosophical producers, philosophical consumers, and the metaphilosophical value of original texts
In recent years, two competing methodological frameworks have developed in the study of the epistemology of philosophy. The traditional camp, led by experimental philosophy and its allies, has made inferences about the epistemology of philosophy based on the reactions, or intuitions, people have to works of philosophy. In contrast, multiple authors have followed the lead of Deutsch and Cappelen by setting aside experimental data in favor of infer…
The threat of the intuition-shaped hole
The assumption that philosophers rely on intuitions to justify their philosophical positions has recently come under substantial criticism. In order to protect philosophy from experimental findings that suggest that intuitions are epistemically problematic, a number of metaphilosophers have argued that intuitions play no substantial epistemic role in philosophy. This paper focuses on attempts to deny intuitions’ epistemic role through exegetical …
Conceptual engineering is old news
According to a prevailing view, conceptual engineering introduces a revolutionary philosophical methodology, challenging traditional conceptual analysis. However, in our paper, we argue that closer scrutiny reveals not only the falsity but also the inherent ambiguity of this narrative. We explore four interpretations of the ‘Anti-Novelty Claim’, the claim that conceptual engineering is not a new way of doing philosophy. Discussing the Anti-Novelt…
What’s the Point of Authors
In this paper, I want to start to untangle some of the philosophical issues associated with our practices of ascribing authorship for collaborative work, with an eye to formulating better guidelines for authorship. I will focus on the following questions: 1. What epistemic, social, and ethical functions are played by our practices of ascribing authorship for academic papers? 2. What ways of ascribing authorship would best address these functions?…
Conceptual Revision in Action
Conceptual engineering is the practice of revising concepts to improve how people talk and think. Its ability to improve talk and thought ultimately hinges on the successful dissemination of desired conceptual changes. Unfortunately, the field has been slow to develop methods to directly test what barriers stand in the way of propagation and what methods will most effectively propagate desired conceptual change. In order to test such questions, t…
Is it a tastytaste or a greedgrab? The importance of label choice in language design
Everyone who has come up with a new idea or concept faces the same problem: they need to call it something. This choice is simultaneously arbitrary and important. The new idea could have any name, but some names for it are clearly better than others. This paper builds upon existing research on the perceived relationship between label and word meaning to better understand the way that label choice affects language design, particularly conceptual e…
Rage against the authority machines: How to design artificial moral advisors for moral enhancement
This paper aims to clear up the epistemology of learning morality from artificial moral advisors (AMAs). We start with a brief consideration of what counts as moral enhancement and consider the risk of deskilling raised by machines that offer moral advice. We then shift focus to the epistemology of moral advice and show when and under what conditions moral advice can lead to enhancement. We argue that people’s motivational dispositions are enhanc…
Philosophical Methodology: From Data to Theory
Conceptual Engineering Should be Empirical
Conceptual engineering is a philosophical method that aims to design and spread conceptual and linguistic devices to cause meaningful changes in the world. So far, however, conceptual engineers have struggled to successfully spread the conceptual and linguistic entities they have designed to their target communities. This paper argues that conceptual engineering is far more likely to succeed if it incorporates empirical data and empirical methods…
People defer to AI moral advice, but not blindly
As AI large language models (LLMs) become increasingly embedded in everyday technologies, should we be concerned about their capacity to influence human beliefs - particularly in the moral domain? Being persuaded because one is convinced by the LLM-generated reasons can support the moral and intellectual growth of users, while being persuaded because one defers to the LLM can prevent, or even reverse, growth and understanding. In three studies, w…
Philosophy (7 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (5 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics (4 works) · Psychology (4 works) · Philosophy and History of Science (3 works) · Cognitive science (2 works) · Contemporary philosophy (2 works) · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI (2 works)