ABSTRACT
Philosophy can help us conceive of the ontological character of use. To begin with, Plato discerns between the creative, using and imitating art, and claims that the user has the deepest knowledge of the artefact.
The architectural theory of intention seems compatible with Aristotle’s view on art, who holds that the making of artefacts happens in two distinct phases, cogitation and production. The phenomenological approach to the production of artefacts is compatible with the theory of reflection, since, as many philosophers held, the essence of the thing to be made exists before the act of making. The theory of construction is compatible with the so-called instrumentalisation of technology, that is, the view that technology is value-free, and what determines the character of its products is the way they are being used. G. Simondon’s “individualization process” seems to cement the latter theory – a tilt towards postmodernist mindset is discernable here.
