Towards a theory of artifacts as realizers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24310/Contrastescontrastes.v27i3.13975Keywords:
artifact, realizers, materialism, technical function, dualismAbstract
This paper presents the basic outline of a “theory of realizers”, a programmatic proposal that aims to establish an alternative to the dominant model in current debates on the ontology of artifacts. Our position is that we can better understand the artificial world if we approach artifacts in terms of “realizers” and their corresponding “realizations,” rather than as essentially “functional” objects. With this objective in mind, the article firstly develops the characterization of artifacts as "realizers" and, secondly, defends the idea in the context of the ontology of artifacts and other discussions in the philosophy of technology. The last section reconstructs our intellectual adversaries; a series of dualisms that structure present debates, such as materiality-function, material-symbolic, structure-function. We argue that the theory of realizers/realizations can surmount these prevailing dualisms and offer a much richer account on the life of artifacts.
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