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Artifacts
Edited by Nurbay Irmak (Bogazici University)
About this topic
| Summary |
One can divide the debates over the ontology of artifacts into two different questions: the existential question and the question about the nature of artifacts. The existential question is simply the question whether there are artifacts, or whether artifacts are among the constituents of reality. The following questions on the nature of artifacts are important to settle the existential question. Are artifacts mind-independent entities, and if not, does that make them less ‘real’ than natural kinds? Do artifacts have essential properties like their intended functions or the material that they are made out of? The answers to these questions are also significant for our theory of reference for artifactual kind terms. |
| Key works | For negative answers to the existential question on the grounds of parsimony, causal adequacy, and other metaphysical principles/virtues see Van Inwagen 1990, Merricks 2001, and Sider 2001. Wiggins 2001, Baker 2007, Thomasson 2007, Elder 2004 and more recently Korman 2010 provide a very different kind of defenses for the existence of artifacts. For a discussion on the theory of reference for artifactual kind terms see Kornblith 1980, Schwartz 1977 and Thomasson 2003. |
| Introductions | Hilpinen 1999 provides a very nice introduction to the philosophical problems surrounding artifacts, including ontological questions mentioned above. See also Korman & Barker 2025, though the scope of his article is wider than artifacts. Margolis & Laurence 2007 is a good collection for different theories of artifacts. |
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Related
Siblings
- Coincident Objects (188)
- Composition as Identity (137)
- Contingent Identity (77)
- Hylomorphism (33)
- Material Constitution (310)
- Mereological Universalism (141)
- Mereological Nihilism (179)
- Monism (138)
- Problem of the Many (68)
- Stuff (148)
- Three- and Four-Dimensionalism (421)
- Vague Objects (114)
- Eliminative Conceptions of Material Objects (89)
- Permissive Conceptions of Material Objects (71)
- Material Objects, Misc (148)
Contents
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| 1 — 50 / 276 |
- Artifact's ontology.C. R. Braida - manuscriptThis paper aims to defend a theory of artifacts based on the concept of field of action as an alternative to functionalist, intentionalist, and double-nature theories. The proposed theory is realist about the existence of entities that are artifacts and praxiological about the nature of such entities. The basis for the theory is the concept of action. The concepts of field of action and of participants in a field of action, such as agents, supports and objects, are introduced by abstraction (...)Remove from this listExport citation
Bookmark - Nature and kinds of Artifact, with a look at metaphysical and ontological aspects of artifactual world.Faghihian Mehrdad - manuscriptRemove from this listExport citation Bookmark
- Trusting and punishing artifacts.Eduoard Machery & Lévan Sardjevéladzé - manuscriptRemove from this listExport citation Bookmark
- Offloading and Mistakes in Artifacts and Value.Christopher Frugé - forthcoming - Journal of Philosophy.Creators offload the construction of their artifact in that the world helps to determine the nature of their imposition in ways that can go beyond the content of their imposing activities. Extant theories of imposition fail to account for offloading by requiring match between content and product. Therefore, I develop an externalist theory that accommodates offloading by taking the imposition of mind onto world to be objectively constrained. An important kind of imposition is normativity. Focusing on personal value, what’s valuable (...)
- The dysfunctionality of everyday things:-on stress, design and artefacts.Sara Ilstedt Hjelm - forthcoming - Techne:: Design Wisdom.
- The Mess We Make: On the Metaphysics of Artifact Kinds.Nurbay Irmak - forthcoming - Erkenntnis:1-17.According to natural kind essentialism, there are certain properties essential to natural kinds. A similar view, artifact kind essentialism, is commonly held for artifactual kinds. According to artifact kind essentialism, artifactual kinds have essential properties that determine their conditions of membership. In this paper, I explore and defend the possibility of a nonessentialist alternative for artifactual kind membership.
- The curated artifact: the case of languages.Simon J. Evnine - 2025 - Synthese 205 (3):1-16.I defend the view that natural languages are artifacts, made and kept in existence by large groups of people through a process of what I call “curatorial creation.” Drawing on a theory of artifacts as the impositions of mind onto matter, a theory I have developed elsewhere, and making use of the examples of explicitly artifactual languages such as Esperanto and Volapük, I attempt to draw out, and render plausible, the idea that even natural languages can be seen as artifacts.No categories
- Renovation and mereorganic continuity.Aleksey Kardash - 2025 - Omsk Scientific Bulletin. Series Society. History. Modernity 10 (1):95-103.The author clarifies nature of the property of merorganic continuity and demonstrates its applicability not only to the question of survival and personal identity, but also to the question of demarcation of reconstruction and restoration. The author also responds to the remarks and criticisms of Roman Kochnev and Konstantin Morozov related to the publication of his previous article.
- Artifact-Functions: A Capacity-Based Approach.Koslicki Kathrin & Massin Olivier - 2025 - In Maria J. García-Encinas & Fernando Martínez-Manrique, Special Objects: Social, Fictional, Modal, and Non-Existent. Springer. pp. 31-51.The question “What is it to be an artifact?” must be distinguished from the question “What is it to be an artifact of kind K?”. Failure to distinguish between these two questions leads to an exaggeration of the role of intentions in the philosophy of artifacts. We accept that intentions are necessary to define the category of artifacts, but we reject the view that intentions are constitutive of what makes something a specific kind of artifact. In the first part of (...)
- Heidegger's argument for fascism.Neil Sinhababu - 2025 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 110 (2):643-660.Heidegger's ontological theories, his observations about liberalism and fascism, and his evaluation of Being are three premises of an argument for fascism. The ontological premise is that integrated wholes and instruments or objects of will are ontologically superior, as Being and Time suggests in discussing Being‐a‐whole and using tools. The social premise is that fascist societies are wholes integrated by dictatorial will, while liberal societies are looser aggregates of free individuals, as Heidegger describes in his 1930s seminars. The evaluative premise, (...)
- An Essay on Artifical Dispositions and Dispositional Compatibilism.Atilla Akalın - 2024 - Felsefe Dünyasi 79:165-187..The rapid pace of technological advancements offers an essential field of research for a deeper understanding of man’s relationship with artifacts of her design. These artifacts designed by humans can have various mental and physical effects on their users. The human interaction with the artifact is not passive; on the contrary, it exhibits a potential that reveals the inner dispositions of human beings and makes them open to new creations. In this article, we will examine the impact of technology on (...)
- Capabilities: An ontology.John Beverley, David Limbaugh, Eric Merrell, Peter Koch & Barry Smith - 2024 - Arxiv.In our daily lives, as in science and in all other domains, we encounter huge numbers of dispositions (tendencies, potentials, powers) which are realized in processes such as sneezing, sweating, shedding, melting. Among this plethora of what we can think of as ‘mere dispositions’ is a subset of dispositions in whose realizations we have an interest – a car responding well when driven on ice, a rabbit’s lungs responding well when it is chased by a wolf, and so on. We (...)
- Two Senses of Law as an Artefact.Bartosz Biskup - 2024 - Monash University Law Review 50 (3):1-27.This paper aims to analyse the claims that law is an artefact. There are two different concepts of the artefact in legal–philosophical literature. In some contexts, the concept of an artefact implies that a law is a social kind rather than something similar to a natural kind. Philosophers use the concepts of essentialism, fallibilism, and externalism to juxtapose law with natural kinds. However, in different contexts, the use of ‘artefact’ seems to presuppose some ontologically robust views from the specific field (...)
- Teleological functional explanations: a new naturalist synthesis.Mihnea Capraru - 2024 - Acta Biotheoretica 72 (5):1--22.The etiological account of teleological function is beset by several difficulties, which I propose to solve by grafting onto the etiological theory a subordinated goal-contribution clause. This approach enables us to ascribe neither too many teleofunctions nor too few; to give a unitary, one-clause analysis that works just as well for teleological functions derived from Darwinian evolution, as for those derived from human intention; and finally, to save the etiological theory from falsification, by explaining how, in spite of appearances, the (...)
- The Aesthetic Intelligibility of Artefacts: Schelling’s Concept of Art in the System of Transcendental Idealism.Giacomo Croci - 2024 - Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics 61 (2):158-175.The article reassesses Schelling’s philosophy of art in the System of Transcendental Idealism, focusing on its practical philosophy and the concept of the artefact. Often unexplored, this perspective offers a new account of Schelling’s early aesthetics, linking aesthetic experience to historical becoming. The discussion begins with an analysis of Schelling’s theory of intentional action, followed by a reconstruction of his understanding of artefact. It argues that Schelling integrates both social and material dimensions into his concept of artefacts. The paper then (...)
- Artifacts Without Authors: Generative Artificial Intelligence and the Question of Authorship.Nurbay Irmak - 2024 - Metaphysics 7 (1):1-15.Artifacts are often characterized as intentional products of human activities, suggesting that they must have authors. However, contrary to this common characterization, I argue that there exist novel examples of artifacts that lack authors. This novelty arises directly from the emergence of generative artificial intelligence applications. I provide several examples of such authorless artifacts and address potential objections to their existence.
- La chose.François Loiret - 2024 - Paris: Éditions Kimé.
- Artifacts, Artworks, and Social Objects.Asya Passinsky - 2024 - In Kathrin Koslicki & Michael J. Raven, The Routledge Handbook of Essence in Philosophy. New York, NY: Routledge.Artifacts include practical items such as tables, chairs, and screwdrivers, as well as artworks such as paintings, sculptures, and musical works. Social objects include social and institutional things such as dollars, borders, states, corporations, and universities. Although we are all familiar with such entities, it is far from clear what their nature or essence consists in and whether they even have a real nature or essence. The aim of this chapter is to survey and critically examine various positions on these (...)
- Introduction: Affectivity and Technology - Philosophical Explorations.Giulia Piredda, Richard Heersmink & Marco Fasoli - 2024 - Topoi 43 (3):1-6.In connecting embodied, embedded, extended, and enactive (4E) cognition with affectivity and emotions, the framework of “situated affectivity” has recently emerged. This framework emphasizes the interactions between the emoter and the environment in the unfolding of our affective lives (Colombetti and Krueger 2015; Griffiths and Scarantino 2009; Piredda 2022; Stephan and Walter 2020). In the last decades, there has also been a growing interest in the philosophical analysis of technology and artifacts (Houkes and Vermaas 2010; Margolis and Laurence 2007; Preston (...)
- La Artefactificación: Un nuevo problema para el Esencialismo Intencional de los Artefactos.Adrián Solís - 2024 - Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 80 (3):943-978.The debate on the nature of the artefacts is very important for contemporary metaphysicians. In this paper we will discuss the standard position in the debate, what we will call it Artifacts’ Intention-Essentialism – such as Baker, Evnine or Thomasson –, that considers the essence of artifacts in terms of intentions of the makers. The aim will be to introduce a new criticism to this proposal based on the undesirable metaphysical and moral consequences that this proposal involve. To do this, (...)
- Artifactual Functions: A Dual, Realizable-Based View.Fumiaki Toyoshima, Adrien Barton & Kathrin Koslicki - 2024 - Joint Ontology Workshops (Jowo 2024), Workshop on Foundational Ontology (Foust), Jul 2024, Enschede, France. Hal-04859460 2024 (July):1-15.In this paper we provide an ontological analysis of so-called “artifactual functions” by deploying a realizable-centered approach to artifacts which we have recently developed within the framework of the upper ontology Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). We argue that, insofar as material artifacts are concerned, the term “artifactual function” can refer to at least two kinds of realizable entities: novel intentional dispositions and usefactual realized entities. They inhere, respectively, in what we previously called “canonical artifacts” and “usefacts”. We show how this (...)
- The interconnection between artifacts and realizable entities.Fumiaki Toyoshima, Adrien Barton, Kathrin Koslicki & Olivier Massin - 2024 - Proceedings of the Joint Ontology Workshops (Jowo) - Episode X: The Tukker Zomer of Ontology, and Satellite Events Co-Located with the 14Th International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems (Fois 2024) 2024 (July):1-14.Artifacts remain nebulous entities, notwithstanding their relevance to various domains such as engineering, art and archeology. In this paper we investigate the interconnection between artifacts and realizable entities, as illustrated by dispositions, functions, and roles within the framework of the upper ontology Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). More concretely, we propose the notions of canonical artifact (something that is intentionally produced for some purpose) and usefact (something that is intended to be used for some non-original purpose) which can correspond to various (...)
- Cultural Values and their Reception. Exploring the Case of Cultural Heritage.Moritz von Kalckreuth - 2024 - Culture and Values 38:9-31.In the debates of value-theory, it is often assumed that the problem of relativism is to be addressed in a general way, taking moral values as archetype of values. The aim of this paper is to contribute to a differentiation of this debate by facing the problem of relativism in terms of a specific kind of values, namely that of cultural values ascribed to heritage. It shall be shown that by involving both cultural and value-dimensions, the case of cultural heritage (...)
- (1 other version)A Dual-Aspect Theory of Artifact Function.Marc Artiga - 2023 - Erkenntnis 88 (4):1533-1554.The goal of this essay is to put forward an original theory of artifact function, which takes on board the results of the debate on the notion of biological function and also accommodates the distinctive aspects of artifacts. More precisely, the paper develops and defends the Dual-Aspect Theory, which is a monist account according to which an artifact’s function depends on intentional and reproductive aspects. It is argued that this approach meets a set of theoretical and meta-theoretical desiderata and is (...)
- (1 other version)Artifacts and fields of action.Celso R. Braida - 2023 - Filosofia Unisinos Unisinos Journal of Philosophy 24 (2):1-15.The aim of this paper is to defend a theory of artifacts based on the concept of field of action, as an alternative to functional, intentional and double-nature theories. The proposed theory is realistic about the existence of entities that are artifacts, and praxiological about the nature of such entities. The basis of the theory is the concept of action; from this concept, the concepts of field of action and participants in a field of action, namely, agents and objects, are (...)
- Aristotle on Artifactual Substances.Phil Corkum - 2023 - Metaphysics 6 (1):24-36.It is standardly held that Aristotle denies that artifacts are substances. There is no consensus on why this is so, and proposals include taking artifacts to lack autonomy, to be merely accidental unities, and to be impermanent. In this paper, I argue that Aristotle holds that artifacts are substances. However, where natural substances are absolutely fundamental, artifacts are merely relatively fundamental—like any substance, an artifact can ground such nonsubstances as its qualities; but artifacts are themselves partly grounded in natural substances. (...)
- Sellars, practical reality, and practical truth.Stefanie Dach - 2023 - Theoria 89 (5):571-591.Wilfrid Sellars is usually read as claiming that only the unobservable, theoretical objects which science would postulate at the ideal end of inquiry are real. Against this, Willem deVries has suggested that we can develop a notion of practical reality in the context of Sellars's philosophy which would pertain primarily to commonsense objects. I use deVries's suggestion as a foil to clarify Sellars's own commitments about the practical. I show that the notion of practical reality is not necessary to secure (...)
- Artifact Concept Pluralism.Alper Güngör - 2023 - Dialectica 77 (2).We have a rough idea of what artifacts are: artifacts are objects made to serve a certain purpose. However, there is no consensus on how to specify this definition. Essentialists argue that objects are grouped into artifact kinds by sharing non-trivial artifact essences, while anti-essentialists argue that there is no such essence to be found. However, the prominent essentialist and anti-essentialist accounts suffer from extensional and definitional problems. I argue that the problems current essentialist and anti-essentialist accounts face mainly stem (...)
- History of memory artifacts.Richard Heersmink - 2023 - In Lucas Bietti & Pogacar Martin, The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Memory Studies. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 1-12.Human biological memory systems have adapted to use technological artifacts to overcome some of the limitations of these systems. For example, when performing a difficult calculation, we use pen and paper to create and store external number symbols; when remembering our appointments, we use a calendar; when remembering what to buy, we use a shopping list. This chapter looks at the history of memory artifacts, describing the evolution from cave paintings to virtual reality. It first characterizes memory artifacts, memory systems, (...)
- Technology and Neutrality.Sybren Heyndels - 2023 - Philosophy and Technology 36 (4):1-22.This paper clarifies and answers the following question: is technology morally neutral? It is argued that the debate between proponents and opponents of the Neutrality Thesis depends on different underlying assumptions about the nature of technological artifacts. My central argument centres around the claim that a mere physicalistic vocabulary does not suffice in characterizing technological artifacts as artifacts, and that the concepts of function and intention are necessary to describe technological artifacts at the right level of description. Once this has (...)
- Type Realism Reconsidered.Nurbay Irmak - 2023 - Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism:1-11.Realism about types is the view that types are abstract and repeatable objects. Although type realists seem to agree that types, unlike properties, are objects in their own right, they argue that there is a metaphysically intimate tie between the existence conditions of types and properties. In particular, most type realists believe that types are, in a certain sense, determined by the properties that underlie them. I argue that this is a mistake, especially for those type realists who believe that (...)
- Artifacts and the Limits of Agentive Authority.Kathrin Koslicki - 2023 - In Miguel Garcia-Godinez, Thomasson on Ontology. Springer Verlag. pp. 209-241.Amie Thomasson and other proponents of author-intention-based accounts of artifacts hold that an artifact is what its original author(s) intended it to be. By contrast, according to the user-based framework developed by Beth Preston, an artifact’s function is determined by the practices of users and reproducers. In this chapter, I argue that both author-intention-based and user-based frameworks suffer from an overly agent-centric orientation: despite their many interesting differences, both approaches run into difficulties with scenarios in which the attitudes or dispositions (...)
- The Metaphysics of Artifacts: a critical rationalist approach.Alireza Mansouri & Emad Tayebi - 2023 - Journal of Philosophical Investigations 17 (42):151-167.Artifacts are ubiquitous and influential in our world, but their nature and existence are controversial. Several theories have been proposed to explain the ontology of artifacts. Drawing on Popper's theory of three worlds, this paper suggests a metaphysics for artifacts along the line of a critical rationalist (CR) approach. This theory distinguishes between three realms of reality: the physical world (World 1), the mental world (World 2), and the world of objective knowledge (World 3). The paper argues that artifacts have (...)
- Considerazioni sul continuum natura/tecnica. Il cibo come artefatto ibrido.Erica Onnis - 2023 - Bollettino Filosofico.Feeding is a fundamental physiological need that falls within the realm of what we consider natural. However, throughout history, human beings have developed and employed several techniques to produce and manipulate food. Therefore, if the classical metaphysical distinction between natural and artefactual entities must be accepted, our food seems to predominantly fall into the latter category. Yet, discussions of artefacts do not typically involve organisms but rather material objects that cannot be found “in nature”. Thus, food may appear as a (...)
- Aristotle’s Ontology of Artefacts.Marilù Papandreou - 2023 - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.It is commonly believed that Aristotle merely uses artefacts as examples or analogical cases. This book, however, shows that Aristotle gives a specific, coherent account of artefacts that in various ways owes much to Plato. Moreover, it proposes a new, definitive solution to the problem of artefacts' substantiality, which comprises two controversial positions: (i) that Aristotle holds a binary view of substantiality according to which artefacts are not substances at all; (ii) that artefacts fail to be substances because they exhibit (...)
- Truth About Artifacts.Howard Sankey - 2023 - Symposion: Theoretical and Applied Inquiries in Philosophy and Social Sciences 10 (1):149-152.Truth in a correspondence sense is objective in two ways. It is objective because the relation of correspondence is objective and because the facts to which truths correspond are objective. Truth about artifacts is problematic because artifacts are intentionally designed to perform certain functions, and so are not entirely mind independent. Against this, it is argued in this paper that truth about artifacts is perfectly objective despite the role played by intention and purpose in the production of artifacts.
- Atos e Artefatos: além do Estético e do Semântico.Celso R. Braida - 2022 - Guarapuava - Boqueirão, Guarapuava - PR, Brasil: Apolodoro Virtual Edições.This book is a reflection on contemporary arts and techniques, with the purpose of rethinking the terms in which they are thought and presented in philosophical contexts, with the art of dance as the plumb line by which theorizations are evaluated. The approach is based on the thesis that the artistic is directly anchored in action and interagency. The aim is to think of works of art no longer as objects, but rather as triggers of action and interaction that require, (...)
- Artifactual Normativity.Christopher Frugé - 2022 - Synthese 200 (126):1-19.A central tension shaping metaethical inquiry is that normativity appears to be subjective yet real, where it’s difficult to reconcile these aspects. On the one hand, normativity pertains to our actions and attitudes. On the other, normativity appears to be real in a way that precludes it from being a mere figment of those actions and attitudes. In this paper, I argue that normativity is indeed both subjective and real. I do so by way of treating it as a special (...)
- Human uniqueness in using tools and artifacts: flexibility, variety, complexity.Richard Heersmink - 2022 - Synthese 200 (6):1-22.The main goal of this paper is to investigate whether humans are unique in using tools and artifacts. Non-human animals exhibit some impressive instances of tool and artifact-use. Chimpanzees use sticks to get termites out of a mound, beavers build dams, birds make nests, spiders create webs, bowerbirds make bowers to impress potential mates, etc. There is no doubt that some animals modify and use objects in clever and sophisticated ways. But how does this relate to the way in which (...)
- Bodies, Functions, and Imperfections.Sherri Irvin - 2022 - In Peter Cheyne, Imperfectionist Aesthetics in Art and Everyday Life. London: Routledge. pp. 271-283.The culturally pervasive tendency to identify aspects of the body as aesthetically imperfect harms individuals and scaffolds injustice related to disability, race, gender, LGBTQ+ identities, and fatness. But abandoning the notion of imperfection may not respect people’s reasonable understandings of their own bodies. I examine the prospects for a practice of aesthetic assessment grounded in a notion of the body’s function. I argue that functional aesthetic assessment, to be respectful, requires understanding the body’s functions as complex, malleable, and determined by (...)
- Essentialism vs. Potentialism: Allies or Competitors?Kathrin Koslicki - 2022 - Philosophisches Jahrbuch 129 (2):325-338.Do essence-based accounts of necessity and Vetter’s potentiality-based account of possibility in fact lead to the same result, viz., a single derived notion of necessity that is interdefinable with possibility or vice versa? And does each approach independently have the ability to reach its desired goal without having to rely on the primitive notion utilized by the other? In this essay, I investigate these questions and Vetter’s responses to them. Contrary to the “separatist” position defended by Vetter, I argue that (...)
- Multifunctional Artefacts and Collocation.David-Hillel Ruben - 2022 - Metaphysics 5 (1):66-77.There appear to be multifunctional artefacts of a type such that none of their functions can be attributed only to some proper part of the artefact. I use two examples of allegedly multifunctional artefacts of this kind in what follows, one due to Lynne Rudder Baker (aspirin) and another of my own (a spork). The two examples are meant to make the same point. I discuss her aspirin example, since its discussion has entered the literature, but without its being dealt (...)
- (1 other version)A Dual-Aspect Theory of Artifact Function.Marc Artiga - 2021 - Erkenntnis:1-22.The goal of this essay is to put forward an original theory of artifact function, which takes on board the results of the debate on the notion of biological function and also accommodates the distinctive aspects of artifacts. More precisely, the paper develops and defends the Dual-Aspect Theory, which is a monist account according to which an artifact’s function depends on intentional and reproductive aspects. It is argued that this approach meets a set of theoretical and meta-theoretical desiderata and is (...)
- Varieties of artifacts: Embodied, perceptual, cognitive, and affective.Richard Heersmink - 2021 - Topics in Cognitive Science (4):1-24.The primary goal of this essay is to provide a comprehensive overview and analysis of the various relations between material artifacts and the embodied mind. A secondary goal of this essay is to identify some of the trends in the design and use of artifacts. First, based on their functional properties, I identify four categories of artifacts co-opted by the embodied mind, namely (1) embodied artifacts, (2) perceptual artifacts, (3) cognitive artifacts, and (4) affective artifacts. These categories can overlap and (...)
- Authorship and Creation.Nurbay Irmak - 2021 - Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 79 (2):175-185.Artworks have authors. According to Christy Mag Uidhir, this simple assumption has significant consequences for the ontology of artworks. One such consequence is that artworks cannot be identified with abstract entities: if there are works of art, they are concrete entities. Therefore, one cannot create an abstract work of art. Mag Uidhir presents a novel challenge against abstract creationism, the view that certain kinds of art objects are abstract artifacts. This article has two aims. First, it provides a defense of (...)
- (1 other version)The Threat of Thinking Things Into Existence.Kathrin Koslicki - 2021 - In Luis R. G. Oliveira and Kevin J. Corcoran, Commonsense Metaphysics: Essays in Honor of Lynne Rudder Baker. pp. 113-136.According to Lynne Rudder Baker, our everyday world is populated, among other things, by what she calls “intention-dependent objects” (“ID objects”), i.e., objects which “could not exist in a world lacking beings with beliefs, desires, and intentions” (Baker (2007), p. 11). Baker’s claim that what exists, at least in part, depends on human activity opens her up to the concern, or so her critics have argued, that new objects and new kinds of objects can apparently be “conjured” into existence, given (...)
- A Bundle Theory of Words.J. T. M. Miller - 2021 - Synthese 198 (6):5731–5748.It has been a common assumption that words are substances that instantiate or have properties. In this paper, I question the assumption that our ontology of words requires posting substances by outlining a bundle theory of words, wherein words are bundles of various sorts of properties (such as semantic, phonetic, orthographic, and grammatical properties). I argue that this view can better account for certain phenomena than substance theories, is ontologically more parsimonious, and coheres with claims in linguistics.
- How Ficta Depend.Michele Paolini Paoletti - 2021 - Esercizi Filosofici 16 (1):3-25.I shall elaborate in this article on the connection between ficta and metaontological pluralism, i.e., the view according to which there are irreducibly many dependence relations. More precisely, I shall consider the main tenets of an artifactualist theory of ficta and show how they can be expressed from the standpoint of a pluralist theory of dependence that accepts irreducibly many Respect-of-Dependence relations (in short, RD-relations). In Section 2, I shall introduce the artifactualist theory at stake and, in Section 3, I (...)
- Aristotle’s Take on Inadvertently Made Objects.Marilù Papandreou - 2021 - Esercizi Filosofici 16 (1):26-41.The way metaphysicians conceive of inadvertently made objects has consequences for their understanding of the relation between intentions and kinds. Indeed, the very possibility of concrete material objects produced without human intention shakes the common identification of an object’s kind and the intentions of the maker. The disruptive potential of inadvertently made objects also affects historians of philosophy, who have often failed to engage with the issue. In this paper, I shall reconstruct Aristotle’s account of inadvertently made objects and the (...)
- How to Test the Ship of Theseus.Marta Campdelacreu, Ramón García-Moya, Genoveva Martí & Enrico Terrone - 2020 - Dialectica 74 (3).The story of the Ship of Theseus is one of the most venerable conundrums in philosophy. Some philosophers consider it a genuine puzzle. Others deny that it is so. It is, therefore, an open question whether there is or there is not a puzzle in the Ship of Theseus story. So, arguably, it makes sense to test empirically whether people perceive the case as a puzzle. Recently, David Rose, Edouard Machery, Stephen Stich and forty-two other researchers from different countries have (...)
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