Nature Of Artifacts Research Articles

Philosophy of Technology

The contribution of the philosophy of technology is based on a reflection on the nature of artifacts, their knowledge and the normative conditions linked to their production and use, with a discussion on the realism/anti-realism of artificial classes according to the functional theory and the historical-intentional theory of artifacts. At the same time, questions of functional knowledge and the epistemic privilege of the knowledge that makers have of their products are addressed. Finally, the discussion of artifacts as value-bearers and their normative dimension of technique is analyzed.

Direct observation of the effects of chemical fixation in MNT-1 cells: A SE-ADM and Raman study.

Aldehydes fixation was accidentally discovered in the early 20th century and soon became a widely adopted practice in the histological field, due to an excellent staining enhancement in tissues imaging. However, the fixation process itself entails cell proteins denaturation and crosslinking. The possible presence of artifacts, that depends on the specific system under observation, must therefore be considered to avoid data misinterpretation. This contribution takes advantage of scanning electron assisted-dielectric microscopy (SE-ADM) and Raman 2D imaging to reveal the possible presence and the nature of artifacts in unstained, and paraformldehyde, PFA, fixed MNT-1 cells. The high resolution of the innovative SE-ADM technique allowed the identification of globular protein clusters in the cell cytoplasm, formed after protein denaturation and crosslinking. Concurrently, SE-ADM images showed a preferential melanosome adsorption on the cluster's outer surface. The micron-sized aggregates were discernible in Raman 2D images, as the melanosomes signal, extracted through 2D principal component analysis, unequivocally mapped their location and distribution within the cells, appearing randomly distributed in the cytoplasm. Protein clusters were not observed in living MNT-1 cells. In this case, mature melanosomes accumulate preferentially at the cell periphery and are more closely packed than in fixed cells. Our results show that, although PFA does not affect the melanin structure, it disrupts melanosome distribution within the cells. Proteins secondary structure, conversely, is partially lost, as shown by the Raman signals related to α-helix, β-sheets, and specific amino acids that significantly decrease after the PFA treatment.

Technoscience, Humanity and Man

This article is a reflection on some conceptual ideas of the book “Humanity and Technos: the philosophy of coevolution” related to negative assessments of the socio-anthropological consequences of the development of technoscience. It is noted that the author’s criticism of novationist interpretations of scientific and technological progress is subordinated to the main idea of the book about the incompatibility of the principles of convergence and coevolution in the relationship between man and technology. It is shown that the book examines not only the external challenges of technoscience, but also the areas of scientific research that threatens the world of traditional man. Based on the results of the analysis of the book's content the following main conclusions are made. 1. Despite the presence of a large group of social problems generated by the fourth technological order the authors of the book are most concerned about the consequences of the development of digital technologies that can change the man's generic nature. 2. Rhetorical theory of number considering in the book as a worldview paradigm of the digital revolution actually has a narrower subject specificity. 3. The assumption that exist a parallel evolution of technology independent of human is contradicting the original premise about the artificial nature of artifacts. 4. Conclusion about the presence of animal traits in humans that were lost during technological revolution is requires specification. 5. The problem of an existential crisis caused by the appearance of a new class of technical artifacts and also the theme of the deficit of freedom in the virtual space has not been its developed. 6. The project of the ideology of left conservatism positioned as the most consistent variant of the philosophy of resistance to the “technogenic degradation of mankind” seems to contradict the dialectical-revolutionary essence of classical Marxism. In conclusion the ideological sense of the main goal for humanity proposed by the authors and the relativity of the ideology of conservatism are shown.

Function essentialism about artifacts

Much recent discussion has focused on the nature of artifacts, particularly on whether artifacts have essences. While the general consensus is that artifacts are at least intention-dependent, an equally common view is function essentialism about artifacts, the view that artifacts are essentially functional objects and that membership in an artifact kind is determined by a particular, shared function. This paper argues that function essentialism about artifacts is false. First, the two component conditions of function essentialism are given a clear and precise formulation, after which counterexamples are offered to each. Second, ways to handle the counterexamples suggested by Randall Dipert and Simon Evnine are considered and rejected. Third, I then consider the prospects for restricting function essentialism to so-called technical artifacts, as Lynne Baker does, and argue that this, too, fails. This paper thereby consolidates the scattered literature on function essentialism and shows that, despite the seeming plausibility of the thesis, it should be rejected as an account of artifact essences.

Artifactualization without Physical Modification

Much recent discussion has focused on the nature of artifacts, particularly on whether they have essences. While it’s often held that artifacts are intentiondependent and necessarily have functions, it’s equally held, though far less discussed, that artifacts are the result of physical modification of some material objects. This article argues that the physical modification condition on artifacts is false. First, it formulates the physical modification condition perspicuously for the first time. Second, it offers counterexamples to this condition. Third, it considers and rejects two responses to these counterexamples, one which appeals to the distinction between being a K and being used as a K and another which argues that the counterexamples are merely of functional, not artifactual, kinds. Finally, it considers and rejects a more general objection that appropriation makes artifact creation too easy. Therefore, artifacts can be created by appropriation, and I sketch some success conditions for such appropriation.

SYMBOLIC MEANING OF METAL CAULDRON IN SCYTHIAN BURIAL PRACTICE FROM ETHNOANALOGY PERSPECTIVE

As historiography shows, sociocultural aspect is the main perspective commonly analyzed in the interpretation of symbolic meaning of Scythian bronze cauldrons. The deposition of such vessels is typical to burials: average barrows of ordinary members of society as well as unique wealthy graves of Scythians with high social status. The hypothesis of sacral symbolic meaning of a cauldron in social perspective is primarily based on some passages by Herodotus (IV, 61 and IV, 81). These written sources merge with general context of archaeological findings — cauldrons are associated with rich grave goods.
 Number of scholars made some successful attempts to calculate the size of Scythian cauldrons, correlate it with a reconstructed nomadic food-value and archaeological context (such as high of the mound and grave goods). Therefore, the cauldrons became a definite marker in Scythian society stratification study. But such viewpoint does not explain the urgent need to deposit Scythian bronze vessels during the burial ritual.
 The article introduces ethnoanalogy as a method, vital for interpretation of spiritual and ideological nature of artifacts. It is underlined that the approach in choosing analogies in ethnography should be structured and calibrated in order to escape scholar’s personal influence on results and to broaden the range of possible meanings.
 Earlier researches failed to find constant features of the cauldron agency in Scythian burial practice and thus to interpret them. The author states that a cauldron possesses certain characteristic features in every case of Scythian burial practice. Such peculiarities include the disposition (namely the main chamber, dromos and household premises), quantity in one grave, quality of a vessel.
 Strictly correlated with archaeological data, ethnoanalogy reveals that cauldron’s agency in Scythian burial practice is strongly connected with the Otherworld (votive offerings, border guard), and this symbolic meaning is realized in the concrete context of depositions.

Second consensus on the assessment of sublingual microcirculation in critically ill patients: results from a task force of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine.

Hand-held vital microscopes (HVMs) were introduced to observe sublingual microcirculatory alterations at the bedside in different shock states in critically ill patients. This consensus aims to provide clinicians with guidelines for practical use and interpretation of the sublingual microcirculation. Furthermore, it aims to promote the integration of routine application of HVM microcirculatory monitoring in conventional hemodynamic monitoring of systemic hemodynamic variables. In accordance with the Delphi method we organized three international expert meetings to discuss the various aspects of the technology, physiology, measurements, and clinical utility of HVM sublingual microcirculatory monitoring to formulate this consensus document. A task force from the Cardiovascular Dynamics Section of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (with endorsement of its Executive Committee) created this consensus as an update of a previous consensus in 2007. We classified consensus statements as definitions, requirements, and/or recommendations, with a minimum requirement of 80% agreement of all participants. In this consensus the nature of microcirculatory alterations is described. The nature of variables, which can be extracted from analysis of microcirculatory images, is presented and the needed dataset of variables to identify microcirculatory alterations is defined. Practical aspects of sublingual HVM measurements and the nature of artifacts are described. Eleven statements were formulated that pertained to image acquisitions and quality statements. Fourteen statements addressed the analysis of the images, and 13 statements are related to future developments. This consensus describes 25 statements regarding the acquisition and interpretation of microcirculatory images needed to guide the assessment of the microcirculation in critically ill patients.

Teaching and learning the nature of technical artifacts

Artifacts are probably our most obvious everyday encounter with technology. Therefore, a good understanding of the nature of technical artifacts is a relevant part of technological literacy. In this article we draw from the philosophy of technology to develop a conceptualization of technical artifacts that can be used for educational purposes. Furthermore we report a small exploratory empirical study to see to what extent teachers’ intuitive ideas about artifacts match with the way philosophers write about the nature of artifacts. Finally, we suggest a teaching and learning strategy for improving (student) teachers’ concepts of technical artifacts through practical activities.

The Wall of Uruk: Iconicities in Gilgamesh

Abstract"The Wall of Uruk: Iconicities in Gilgamesh". This article examines the invitation in the SV prologue to Gilgamesh (I 1-28) as a device to engage the reader in a series of iconic acts that aim to preserve heroic glory. Since two artifacts in particular—the wall of Uruk and the inscribed tablet—mediate these acts, I investigate the nature of artifacts in general in the poem, and specifically focus on three: the corpse of Enkidu, his funeral statue, and the divine fruit in the garden at the end of Tablet IX. These three stand related to each other as a series of iconic representations of the emplacement of life within various bodies. In the context of these representations, the lapis lazuli tablet on which Gilgamesh allegedly inscribes his tale also figures as a kind of body: a relatively permanent one that appropriates the reader's voice through the act of recitation to grant Gilgamesh perpetually renewable life.

Artifacts as Conventional Objects

What underlies children's understanding of artifacts? Studies suggest that beginning around age 7, people reason about artifacts in terms of the inventor's purpose—termed the design stance. Our two studies emphasize another component of artifact understanding—the cultural nature of artifacts—by demonstrating people's sensitivity to an artifact's conventional use. In past studies participants were shown a novel artifact and told that someone invented it for a certain purpose and that later another person used it for a different purpose. Here we demonstrate that if participants are told that many people, as opposed to just one person, use an artifact differently, 5-year-olds, 7-year-olds, and adults do not strictly judge the artifact in terms of its invented purpose. We conclude that people's conceptions of artifacts are more complex and dynamic than has been suggested.

The Nature of Artifacts

The Nature of Artifacts

The Nature of Artifacts

In Book II, Chapter 1 of the Physics Aristotle attempts to distinguish natural objects from artifacts. He begins by stating that a natural object ‘has in itself a source of change and staying unchanged, whether in respect of place, or growth and decay, or alteration’. But this is not sufficient to distinguish natural objects from artifacts. As he points out later, a wooden bed, for example, can rot or burn, and this is surely a change whose source is, in part, internal to the bed. To make his distinction, Aristotle writes that in a natural object the internal ‘source of change and remaining unchanged’ belongs to it ‘primarily and of itself, that is, not by virtue of concurrence’. The bed rots because it happens to be made of wood: the change is due to its material, not due to its essence, namely that it is a bed. A natural object, however, changes because of its essence, that is, because it is the natural object that it is.

A new software correction approach to volume averaging artifacts in CT

The nature of artifacts in computed tomography, due to nonlinear partial volume effects, is briefly reviewed. A methodology for correction of these artifacts is proposed. This methodology utilizes a correction algorithm for post-processing the original reconstructed CT image. The algorithm utilizes local CT values to predict the probability of volume averaging of bone, air and tissue, and incorporates information from the original image on the spatial extent of the averaging, to correct the nonlinear effects. The algorithm is successfully demonstrated on mathematical phantoms, wherein volume averaging can be introduced over central targets and/or peripheral annuli of tissue, bone, and air. The algorithm is also demonstrated on actual CT brain scans but only for its qualitative effects. It is pointed out that higher order corrections, to be reported in future publications, will further correct the actual clinical scans.

4478084 Ultrasound tomography device : Dieter Hassler, Elma Trautenberg, Uttenreuth, Federal Republic of Germany assigned to Siemens Aktiengesellschaft

The nature of artifacts in computed tomography, due to nonlinear partial volume effects, is briefly reviewed. A methodology for correction of these artifacts is proposed. This methodology utilizes a correction algorithm for post-processing the original reconstructed CT image. The algorithm utilizes local CT values to predict the probability of volume averaging of bone, air and tissue, and incorporates information from the original image on the spatial extent of the averaging, to correct the nonlinear effects. The algorithm is successfully demonstrated on mathematical phantoms, wherein volume averaging can be introduced over central targets and/or peripheral annuli of tissue, bone, and air. The algorithm is also demonstrated on actual CT brain scans but only for its qualitative effects. It is pointed out that higher order corrections, to be reported in future publications, will further correct the actual clinical scans.