I think that though there’s been a welcome surge of interest in conceptual engineering in recent years, the basic idea has been around for quite some time (though under different names). In particular, Carnap argued that we should “explicate” rather than “analyse” concepts already in the 1940s and 1950s. In other words, we shouldn’t just try to explain the meaning of pre-existing concepts, but should develop new and more useful concepts that partially replace the old concepts.
Carnap’s understanding of explication was influenced by Karl Menger’s conception of the methodological role of definitions in mathematics, exemplified by Menger’s own explicative definition of dimension in topology. ... Explication in Carnap’s sense is the replacement of a somewhat unclear and inexact concept C, the explicandum, by a new, clearer, and more exact concept undefined, the explicatum.
I think that though there’s been a welcome surge of interest in conceptual engineering in recent years, the basic idea has been around for quite some time (though under different names). In particular, Carnap argued that we should “explicate” rather than “analyse” concepts already in the 1940s and 1950s. In other words, we shouldn’t just try to explain the meaning of pre-existing concepts, but should develop new and more useful concepts that partially replace the old concepts.
See also Logical Foundations of Probability, pp. 3-20.
I’ve heard similar things about Carnap! Have had some of his writing in a to-read pile for ages now.