Towards A Unified Definition of Function

Both natural objects and artifacts have been studied from a variety of perspectives by the different sciences. One issue that has so far resisted philosophical and ontological investigations is the definition of a general notion of function capable of making sense of the functions attributed to natural objects, such as biological organisms, as well as of the functions attributed to artifacts, such as (designed) tools. The paper starts from the notions of role and context to study a definition already used to define artifact functions. The clarification of types of functional contexts and of the role of intentionality in defining function leads to a new proposal that applies to functions of natural objects as well as of artifacts. Finally, we evaluate our proposal against some desiderata discussed in the literature.

Tipo Pubblicazione: 
Contributo in atti di convegno
Author or Creator: 
Mizoguchi, Riichiro
Kitamura, Yoshinobu
Borgo, Stefano
Source: 
Formal Ontology in Information Systems, Seventh International Conference 2012. Proceedings, pp. 103–116, Graz, Austria, 24-27 July 2012
Date: 
2012
Resource Identifier: 
http://www.cnr.it/prodotto/i/225146
https://dx.doi.org/10.3233/978-1-61499-084-0-103
info:doi:10.3233/978-1-61499-084-0-103
http://www.ei.sanken.osaka-u.ac.jp/pub/miz/miz-fois2012.pdf
urn:isbn:978-1-61499-083-3
ISTC Author: 
Ritratto di Stefano Borgo
Real name: