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Artefact Kinds

Ontology and the Human-Made World

  • Addresses ontologies of artefact kinds in engineering practice
  • Offers practical as well as theoretical implications
  • Presents important developments in both formal ontology and ontology engineering?

Part of the book series: Synthese Library (SYLI, volume 365)

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Table of contents (12 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-vi
  2. Introduction: The Ontology of Technical Artefacts

    • Maarten Franssen, Peter Kroes, Thomas A. C. Reydon, Pieter E. Vermaas
    Pages 1-14
  3. Artefact Kinds and Metaphysics

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 15-15
    2. Artifacts and Mind-Independence

      • Crawford L. Elder
      Pages 27-43
    3. Public Artifacts, Intentions, and Norms

      • Amie L. Thomasson
      Pages 45-62
    4. Artefact Kinds, Ontological Criteria and Forms of Mind-Dependence

      • Maarten Franssen, Peter Kroes
      Pages 63-83
    5. Artifact Kinds, Identity Criteria, and Logical Adequacy

      • Massimiliano Carrara, Silvia Gaio, Marzia Soavi
      Pages 85-101
  4. Artefact Kinds and New Perspectives

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 103-103
    2. Creating Artifactual Kinds

      • Jesús Vega-Encabo, Diego Lawler
      Pages 105-124
    3. Ethnotechnology: A Manifesto

      • Beth Preston
      Pages 145-163
  5. Artefact Kinds and Engineering Practice

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 165-165
    2. On What Is Made: Instruments, Products and Natural Kinds of Artefacts

      • Wybo Houkes, Pieter E. Vermaas
      Pages 167-190

About this book

This book is concerned with two intimately related topics of metaphysics: the identity of entities and the foundations of classification. What it adds to previous discussions of these topics is that it addresses them with respect to human-made entities, that is, artefacts. As the chapters in the book show, questions of identity and classification require other treatments and lead to other answers for artefacts than for natural entities. These answers are of interest to philosophers not only for their clarification of artefacts as a category of things but also for the new light they may shed on these issue with respect to to natural entities.    

This volume is structured in three parts.  The contributions in Part I address basic ontological and metaphysical questions in relation to artefact kinds: How should we conceive of artefact kinds? Are they real kinds? How are identity conditions for artefacts and artefact kinds related? The contributions in Part II address meta-ontological questions: What, exactly, should an ontological account of artefact kinds provide us with? What scope can it aim for? Which ways of approaching the ontology of artefact kinds are there, how promising are they, and how should we assess this? In Part III, the essays offer engineering practice rather than theoretical philosophy as a point of reference. The issues addressed here include: How do engineers classify technical artefacts and on what grounds? What makes specific classes of technical artefacts candidates for ontologically real kinds, and by which criteria?​

Editors and Affiliations

  • Section of Philosophy, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Maarten Franssen, Peter Kroes, Thomas A. C. Reydon

  • Institut für Philosophie, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover, Germany

    Pieter E. Vermaas

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Artefact Kinds

  • Book Subtitle: Ontology and the Human-Made World

  • Editors: Maarten Franssen, Peter Kroes, Thomas A. C. Reydon, Pieter E. Vermaas

  • Series Title: Synthese Library

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00801-1

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Philosophy and Religion (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-00800-4Published: 17 October 2013

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-34641-0Published: 23 August 2016

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-00801-1Published: 04 October 2013

  • Series ISSN: 0166-6991

  • Series E-ISSN: 2542-8292

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: VI, 225

  • Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations, 1 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Philosophy of Technology, Engineering Design

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 99.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 129.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access