Genealogy, Evaluation, and Engineering

Abstract

Against those who identify genealogy with reductive genealogical debunking or deny it evaluative significance, I argue, first, that while genealogies tend to trace the higher to the lower, they need not reduce the higher to the lower, but can elucidate their relation and help us think more realistically about both relata; second, that if we conceive of genealogy in terms of a triadic model including the addressee, it becomes intelligible how tracing the higher to the lower can facilitate an evaluation of the higher, and how, where the lower is some important practical need rather than some sinister motive, the genealogy can even be vindicatory; and third, that vindicatory genealogies can offer positive guidance on how to engineer better concepts.