On Artifacts
August 14, 2018
timothywstanley@me.com
The contemporary world is pervasively artifactual. Even our most mundane, biologically based activities, such as eating, sleeping, and sex, depend on engagement with artifacts. Moreover, many of the plants and animals we encounter on a daily basis qualify as biological artifacts... But unlike language—which also pervades human life from top to bottom—artifacts as such are not the subject matter of any well-defined area of philosophical research. This is as much the case today as it has been throughout the history of Western philosophy... Philosophy of technology might have played this role, but historically it has not done so. Although its roots reach back to the 19th century, philosophy of technology became a widely recognized specialization only in the second half of the 20th century. This early phase was dominated by so-called 'humanities philosophy of technology...' Heavily influenced by Martin Heidegger’s (1954 [1977]) seminal essay, 'The Question Concerning Technology,' this strain of philosophy of technology focuses primarily on the cultural and social effects of industrial and post-industrial technologies.
Beth Preston, "Artifact," The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - plato.stanford.edu/entries/artifact/ . This is a helpful and newly revised introductory summary of gaps in philosophical studies of the artifactual nature of human life. My last book Writing Faith, sought to go some way in charting new directions in this field with reference to the history of religious books.