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Articles

Artifact Liberation

Bill Capra considers the controversial argument that things have rights.

A hammer is for hammering; and to use it for something else is to misuse it. We should use it as a hammer; and we should hammer with it if we use it. If something is a hammer, that means that there is a norm that we ought to strike nails with it, at least if we use it for anything. Similarly, something’s being a present means that we should give it perhaps to Aunt Mabel, and maybe wrap it up in nice paper. In general, artifactual functions generate norms.

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