Creations Of The Mind

371 Pages·2007·4.18 MB·English

by  Eric Margolis

CREATIONS OF THE MIND
Creations of the Mind presents sixteen original essays by theorists from a wide
varietyofdisciplineswhohaveasharedinterestinthenatureofartifactsandtheir
implications for the human mind. All the papers are written specially for this
volume,andtheycoverabroadrangeoftopicsconcernedwiththemetaphysics
of artifacts, our concepts of artifacts and the categories that they represent, the
emergenceofanunderstandingofartifactsininfants’cognitivedevelopment,as
wellastheevolutionofartifactsandtheuseoftoolsbynon-humananimals.This
volume will be a fascinating resource for philosophers, cognitive scientists, and
psychologists,and thestartingpoint forfutureresearch inthestudy ofartifacts
andtheirroleinhumanunderstanding,development,andbehaviour.
EricMargolisisProfessorofPhilosophyattheUniversityofWisconsin-Madison.
StephenLaurenceisProfessorofPhilosophyattheUniversityofSheffield.
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Creations of the Mind
Theories of Artifacts and Their Representation
editedby
ERIC MARGOLIS
and
STEPHEN LAURENCE
1
1
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1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Contents
ListofContributors vii
Introduction ix
PART I: METAPHYSICS
1. SocialOntologyandthePhilosophyofSociety 3
JohnR.Searle
2. Artifacts:PartsandPrinciples 18
RichardE.Grandy
3. OnthePlaceofArtifactsinOntology 33
CrawfordL.Elder
4. ArtifactsandHumanConcepts 52
AmieL.Thomasson
5. ArtworksasArtifacts 74
JerroldLevinson
PART II: CONCEPTS AND CATEGORIES
6. ArtifactCategorization:TheGood,theBad,andtheUgly 85
BarbaraC.MaltandStevenA.Sloman
7. SeedlessGrapes:NatureandCulture 124
DanSperber
8. HowtoRefertoArtifacts 138
HilaryKornblith
9. WaterasanArtifactKind 150
PaulBloom
10. TheOrganizationandRepresentationofConceptualKnowledgein
theBrain:LivingKindsandArtifacts 157
BradfordZ.MahonandAlfonsoCaramazza
PART III: COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
11. TheConceptualFoundationsofAnimalsandArtifacts 191
JeanM.Mandler
vi Contents
12. TheEssenceofArtifacts:DevelopingtheDesignStance 212
DeborahKelemenandSusanCarey
13. AWorldApart:HowConceptsoftheConstructedWorldAre
DifferentinRepresentationandinDevelopment 231
FrankC.Keil,MarissaL.Greif,andRebekkahS.Kerner
PART IV: EVOLUTION
14. AnimalArtifacts 249
JamesL.Gould
15. TheEvolutionaryAncestryofOurKnowledgeofTools:From
PerceptsToConcepts 267
MarcD.HauserandLaurieR.Santos
16. CreationsofPre-ModernHumanMinds:StoneToolManufacture
andUsebyHomohabilis,heidelbergensis,andneanderthalensis 289
StevenMithen
References 312
Index 347
List of Contributors
PaulBloom,DepartmentofPsychology,YaleUniversity
AlfonsoCaramazza,DepartmentofPsychology,HarvardUniversity
SusanCarey,DepartmentofPsychology,HarvardUniversity
CrawfordL.Elder,DepartmentofPhilosophy,UniversityofConnecticut
JamesL.Gould,DepartmentofEcologyandEvolutionaryBiology,PrincetonUniversity
RichardE.Grandy,DepartmentofPhilosophy,RiceUniversity
MarissaL.Greif,DepartmentofPsychologyandBrainSciences,DukeUniversity
Marc D. Hauser, Departments of Psychology, Organismic and Evolutionary Biology,
andHumanEvolutionaryBiology,HarvardUniversity
FrankC.Keil,DepartmentofPsychology,YaleUniversity
DeborahKelemen,DepartmentofPsychology,BostonUniversity
RebekkahS.Kerner,DepartmentofPsychology,YaleUniversity
HilaryKornblith,DepartmentofPhilosophy,UniversityofMassachusetts
JerroldLevinson,DepartmentofPhilosophy,UniversityofMaryland,CollegePark
BradfordZ.Mahon,DepartmentofPsychology,HarvardUniversity
BarbaraC.Malt,DepartmentofPsychology,LehighUniversity
JeanM.Mandler,DepartmentofCognitiveScience,UniversityofCalifornia,SanDiego
StevenMithen,DepartmentofArchaeology,UniversityofReading
LaurieR.Santos,DepartmentofPsychology,YaleUniversity
JohnR.Searle,DepartmentofPhilosophy,UniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley
StevenA.Sloman,DepartmentofCognitiveandLinguisticSciences,BrownUniversity
DanSperber,InstitutJeanNicod(CNRS,EHESS,andENS),Paris
AmieL.Thomasson,DepartmentofPhilosophy,UniversityofMiami
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Introduction
Oneofthemoststrikingfactsabouthumanbeingsisthatweliveinaworldthat
is,toanunprecedentedextent,populatedbyourowncreations.Weareliterally
surrounded by artifacts of all shapes and sizes, ranging from simple objects,
such as tables and chairs, to vastly complicated feats of technology, including
televisions, automobiles, computers, power grids, and water-treatment plants.
Given their prevalence, it is only natural that we should take these things for
granted.Butamoment’sreflectionrevealsthesignificanceofhumanartifactsfor
our daily lives. All you have to do is look around you. As Henry Petroski has
remarked(1992,p.ix):
Otherthantheskyandsometrees,everythingIcanseefromwhereInowsitisartificial.
The desk, books, and computer before me; the chair, rug, and door behind me; the
lamp,ceiling,androofaboveme;theroads,cars,andbuildingsoutsidemywindow.If
truthbetold,eventheskyhasbeencoloredbypollution,andthestandofthetreeshas
beenoddlyshapedtoconformtothespaceallottedbydevelopment.Virtuallyallurban
sensualexperiencehasbeentouchedbyhumanhands,andthusthevastmajorityofus
experiencethephysicalworld,atleast,asfilteredthroughtheprocessofdesign.
Moreover,urbanareasaren’ttheonlyonesthatarepopulatedbyhumanartifacts.
Just about everywhere on the planet where humans live, you will find both an
abundanceofartifactsandalandscapethathasbeensubstantiallyalteredtomeet
humanneeds—fromtheroadsandfencesthatcross-cutfarmlandstothedocks
thatprotrudefromsmallfishingvillages.
Many artifacts have clear functional uses. They cook our food, they keep us
warm and dry, they take us where we want to go. But human artifacts aren’t
purely utilitarian objects. They also have enormous cultural value. There is a
bigdifferencebetweendrivingaVolkswagenBeetleandaHummer,orbetween
wearingthelatestArmanisuitandanoldpairofripped,baggyjeans.Theartifacts
wesurroundourselves withspeak volumesabout what isimportantto us, what
groupsweidentifywith,andwhoweareasindividuals.
Artifacts are also important because of their potential to reveal distinctive
features of the human mind. The image of ‘man the tool-user’ has been
complicatedbyrecentdiscoveriesabouttheecologyofnon-humananimals(see
Gould, this volume), but it is still quite reasonable to point to theoretically
significantfactsabouthumanartifactsthatmaydistinguishusasaspecies.Even
ifnon-humananimalsmightbesaidtoproduceartifactsoftheirown—aswhen
chimpanzees employ small branches to collect hard-to-reach termites—it bears
explainingwhywehumansaresomuchmoreprolificinthetypesofartifactswe
createandwhyweareso much moreflexibleandcreativeinhowweusethem.