NDLI: The fine-grained metaphysics of artifactual and biological functional kinds

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Carrara, Massimilia Vermaas, Pieter E.
Copyright Year	2008
Abstract	In this paper we consider the emerging position in metaphysics that artifact functions characterize real kinds of artifacts. We analyze how it can circumvent an objection by David Wiggins (Sameness and substance renewed, 2001, 87) and then argue that this position, in comparison to expert judgments, amounts to an interesting fine-grained metaphysics: taking artifact functions as (part of the) essences of artifacts leads to distinctions between principles of activity of artifacts that experts in technology have not yet made. We show, moreover, that our argument holds not only in the artifactual realm but also in biology: taking biological functions as (part of the) essences of organs leads to distinctions between principles of activity of organs that biological experts have not yet made. We run our argument on the basis of analyses of artifact and biological functions as developed in philosophy of technology and of biology, thus importing results obtained outside of metaphysics into the debate on ontological realism. In return, our argument shows that a position in metaphysics provides experts reason for trying to detect differences between principles of activities of artifacts and organs that have not been detected so far.
Starting Page	125
Ending Page	143
Page Count	19
File Format	PDF
ISSN	00397857
Journal	Synthese
Volume Number	169
Issue Number	1
e-ISSN	15730964
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Netherlands
Publisher Date	2008-05-21
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Metaphysics Ontological realism Artifacts Artifact functions Metaphysics of artifacts Biological organs Metaphysics of biology Biological functions Functional kinds David Wiggins Philosophy of Language Logic Epistemology Computer Science Philosophy of Science
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Philosophy Social Sciences

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