Creations of the Mind: Theories of Artifacts and their Representation - Hardcover

Eric Margolis and Stephen Laurence...are to be highly commended for conceiving this volume in the first place, since artifacts have been virtually non-existent as a subject matter in Western philosophy. And they have done a good job with quality control. (Beth Preston, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews)

the papers in the collection are rich, clear, and well argued, and all of them deserve careful attention. The volume is an indispensible resource for both research and teaching in this promising and interdisciplinary field, a field that is only in its infancy and will surely grow in importance over the coming years. (Brian Epstein, Mind)

Creations of the Mind presents sixteen original essays by theorists from a wide variety of disciplines who have a shared interest in the nature of artifacts and their implications for the human mind. All the papers are written specially for this volume, and they cover a broad range of topics concerned with the metaphysics of artifacts, our concepts of artifacts and the categories that they represent, the emergence of an understanding of artifacts in infants' cognitive development, as well as the evolution of artifacts and the use of tools by non-human animals. This volume will be a fascinating resource for philosophers, cognitive scientists, and psychologists, and the starting point for future research in the study of artifacts and their role in human understanding, development, and behaviour.

Contributors: John R. Searle, Richard E. Grandy, Crawford L. Elder, Amie L. Thomasson, Jerrold Levinson, Barbara C. Malt, Steven A. Sloman, Dan Sperber, Hilary Kornblith, Paul Bloom, Bradford Z. Mahon, Alfonso Caramazza, Jean M. Mandler, Deborah Kelemen, Susan Carey, Frank C. Keil, Marissa L. Greif, Rebekkah S. Kerner, James L. Gould, Marc D. Hauser, Laurie R. Santos, Steven Mithen