What attitude should we take to conceptual engineering?

In this paper, I grapple with the question: What attitude should we take to conceptual engineering? Particularly, I consider whether cautious optimism is warranted when conceptual engineering is understood as a means of promoting social justice. For Simion and Kelp (Noûs 54(4):985–1002, 2019), evolutionary biology and biotechnology serve as useful analogical sources for grounding optimism. In response, I argue that (1) even if the analogy holds, optimism cannot inferred from biology to conceptual engineering, and (2) the analogy breaks down. However, I show that this does not mean that optimism is unwarranted. There is still a case to made for the possibility that material conditions can be intentionally manipulated in a way that would generate welcomed conceptual consequences. I call this the pre-implementation challenge.