Whether finish product or component, an artifact is ‘for something’, and what it is for known as the artifact’sfunction. Several researchers have emphasised that an sufficient description of artifacts must refer both to their standing as tangible bodily objects and to the intentions of the individuals engaged with them. Kroes and Meijers have dubbed this view “the dual nature of technical artifacts”; its most mature formulation is Kroes 2012. They counsel that the 2 elements are ‘tied up’, so to talk, within the notion of artifact function. One, which will be passed over quickly because little philosophical work appears to have been done concerning it, is that structure and function mutually constrain one another, however the constraining is only partial. It is unclear whether a common account of this relation is feasible and what problems need to be solved to arrive there.
- It additionally increases cooperation between national programmes to