Metaphysics and Ontology
Metaphysics of artefacts
Steffen Steinert is interested in metaphysical issues of emerging technology. He has investigated so-called creative machines and addressed the question whether machines can create works of art. Steffen proposes that an account of creative machines and art creation based on technical functions and intentions yields that creative machines can create art.
Steinert, S. (2017). Art: Brought to You by Creative Machines. Philosophy & Technology, 30(3), 267–284. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-016-0230-6
Pieter Vermaas participated in the Dual Nature of Technical Artifacts programme that ran in de 2000s at the TU Delft department of Philosophy. One research line in that programme to which he contributed concerned the ontological categorisation of technical artefacts and their relation to physical, biological and social objects that have received more extensive analysis in metaphysics.
- Franssen, M., P. Kroes, T.A.C. Reydon and P.E. Vermaas (eds.) (2014) Artefact Kinds: Ontology and the Human-Made World, vol. 365 of Synthese Library (Dordrecht: Springer)
- Houkes, W., and P.E. Vermaas (2014) On What Is Made: Instruments, Products and Natural Kinds of Artefacts, in M. Franssen, P. Kroes, T.A.C. Reydon and P.E. Vermaas (eds.) Artefact Kinds: Ontology and the Human-Made World, vol. 365 of Synthese Library (Dordrecht: Springer), pp. 167-190.
- Borgo, S., M. Franssen, P. Garbacz, Y. Kitamura, R. Mizoguchi and P.E. Vermaas (2014) Technical Artifacts: An Integrated Perspective, Applied Ontology 9, 217-235.
- Vermaas, P.E., M. Carrara, S. Borgo and P. Garbacz (2013) The Design Stance and Its Artefacts, Synthese 190, 1131-1152.
- Houkes, W., and P.E. Vermaas (2013) Pluralism on Artefact Categorisation: A Philosophical Defence, Review of Philosophy and Psychology 4, 543-557.
- Carrara, M., and P.E. Vermaas (2009) The Fine-Grained Metaphysics of Artifactual and Biological Functional Kinds, Synthese 169, 125-143.
- Houkes, W., and P.E. Vermaas (2009) Contemporary Engineering and the Metaphysics of Artefacts: Beyond the Artisan Model, Monist 92, 403-419.
- Houkes, W., and P.E. Vermaas (2004) Actions versus Functions: A Plea For an Alternative Metaphysics of Artifacts, Monist 87, 52-71.