Technical artifacts: An integrated perspective

Technical artifacts: An integrated perspective

Borgo, S.
Franssen, M.P.M.
Garbacz, P.
Kitamura, Y.
Mizoguchi, R.
Vermaas, P.E.

Technology, Policy and Management

Values Technology and Innovation

2014-12-10

Humans are always interested in distinguishing natural and artificial entities although there is no sharp demarcation between the two categories. Surprisingly, things do not improve when the second type of entities is restricted to the arguably more constrained realm of physical technical artifacts. This paper helps to clarify the relationship between natural entities and technical artifacts by developing a conceptual landscape within which to analyze these notions. The framework is developed by studying three definitions of technical artifact which arise from different perspectives. All these perspectives share two intuitions: that technical artifacts are physical objects that exist by human intervention; and that technical artifacts are entities to be contrasted to natural entities. Yet the perspectives are different in the way they spell out these intuitions: the relevant human intervention may range from intentional selection to intentional production; and the contrast between technical artifacts and natural entities may be introduced by a constitution relation or by defining properties that set technical artifacts apart. The three perspectives are compared and their similarities and dissimilarities are explored with the help of ontological analysis.

technical artifact
formal ontology
natural–artificial distinction

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f1dcae80-0580-4b6f-8c3b-a8e736b39ff1

https://doi.org/10.3233/AO-140137

IOS Press

2015-12-10

1570-5838

Applied Ontology, 9 (3-4), 2014

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2014 IOS Press and the authors