ABSTRACT
Artifact functions are commonly taken to be intended, be it by the creators of the artifacts or their users or recipients. While many philosophers take this to be true of paradigmatic functions of technical and artistic artifacts in particular, they have paid considerably less attention to the role of intentions with respect to functions of social artifacts such as laws, institutions, corporations, and the like. This chapter shows whether the challenges that social factors pose to intentionalist accounts of artifact functions should ultimately motivate us to abandon such accounts. It reviews intentionalist accounts of artifact functions to make clear what characterizes these accounts and to lay bare the benefits of taking the intentionalist stance. The chapter explains how far social factors pose challenges to intentionalist accounts. In philosophical debates about artifact functions, intentionalist accounts are prevalent. Proponents of such accounts include Bahr, Dipert, McLaughln, Neander, and Searle.
