Welcome to the Normative Artifact Function Project, home to the YAAAF framework (Yet Another Account of Artifact Functions). YAAAF addresses an important and central question: “What are artifacts for?” At its core, the normative function account focuses on the effects artifacts produce and how those effects provide reasons for their existence. By connecting these functions to the values that justify artifacts, YAAAF offers valuable insights into how we ought to design, use, and evaluate artifacts, from basic tools to advanced technologies.
A goal of this website is to show how the normative function account works in challenging cases. To do this, we examine a range of artifacts, each chosen to highlight the account’s ability to handle tricky cases. You can explore the site in two ways. Click on an artifact to see how the account applies to it, or select a difficulty it exemplifies to learn how the framework tackles this issue.
The full explanation of the account can be found in this [paper], but here’s a definition:
Normative Function: An artifact A with material features F has a normative function to φ if and only if
1) φ-ing is an effect of a set of use-plans for A that F are in principle suited for, and
2) φ-ing is a reason why it ought to be the case that people are able to incorporate an artifact with F into their use-plans.
