Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Design, Function, and Human Flourishing: Or, What to Make of What We Make

Design, Function, and Human Flourishing: Or, What to Make of What We Make

Wittingslow, Ryan Mitchell

Hardcover

PhilosophyTechnology & Engineering

PREORDER - Expected ship date February 18, 2027

ISBN10: 1350576964
ISBN13: 9781350576964
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Published: Feb 18 2027
Pages: 208
Weight: 1.11
Height: 1.11 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English

Ryan Mitchell Wittingslow connects aesthetics and ethics to understand how designed objects acquire and maintain their functions.

Building on work in philosophy of technology and design theory, Wittingslow introduces a framework based on Nelson Goodman's concept of exemplification. He shows how designed objects can exemplify different functions in different contexts of use and evaluation, addressing a key puzzle in design theory: how do we understand objects with conflicting functions? Wittingslow is able to capture how functions can be stable enough to ground normative judgments, while remaining flexible enough to evolve through use and maintenance.

This original theory, illustrating how objects shape human capabilities through their exemplified use, presents an alternative way of thinking about objects with conflicting functions. Wittingslow's philosophical analysis, grounded in design examples, creates new tools for ethical evaluation and lays the foundations for understanding functional beauty and analyzing potential design futures.

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