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special issue of "Review of Philosophy and Psychology" on artifact categorization, Deadline: 15 Nov 2012

*  **Artifact Categorization*

          Special Issue of the Review of Philosophy and Psychology
          Guest editors: Massimiliano Carrara and Daria Mingardo

*          Call for Papers*

*Deadline for Submissions*: November 15, 2012

How do we decide that a certain item is a chair? How do we establish that
objects as diverse as a throne, a glider and a papasan chair may all be
categorized as chairs? More generally, how do we categorize artifacts?

The topic of artifact categorization has recently attracted the attention
of both philosophers and psychologists. However, these two communities have
so far carried out their studies in a rather independent way. The aim of
this special issue is to promote an interdisciplinary approach on artifact
categorization.

In the recent literature, philosophers on the one hand tend to argue that
we categorize chairs and pens, smartphones and cars on the basis of one
fundamental property: some think that such fundamental property is the
artifact?s function (e.g. Kornblith, Dennett, Rudder Baker), others the
designer?s intentions (e.g. Vaesen and van Amerongen), others still a
combination of structural properties and function (e.g. Houkes and
Vermaas). On the other hand, the conflicting results of psychological
experiments on artifact categorization (e.g. Rips, Malt and Johnson, Ahn,
Chaigneau et al) seem to press either to adopt much more nuanced positions,
or to straightforwardly conclude that no coherent account of artifact
categorization can be given (Malt and Sloman). A significant exception to
these attitudes in the psychological literature is Bloom, for whom we
categorize artifacts on the basis of intended category membership.

The present issue invites contributions that integrate existing results and
purport to move forward the discussion on artifact categorization. We
welcome contributions capable of enhancing interdisciplinary discussion,
e.g. theoretical papers that discuss/critically exploit experimental data
on artifact categorization, papers that compare philosophical and
experimental methods of inquiry on artifact categorization, and papers that
while presenting new empirical findings on the topic, suggest how these can
address philosophical questions.

Examples of potential topics are (the list is not exhaustive):
- According to e.g. Malt and Sloman, we categorize artifacts in many
different ways, depending on the cognitive task we are involved in. But is
there a way of categorizing artifacts that subjects consider as
fundamental? Can psychological experiments offer an answer to this
question? Or is it a question that calls for a purely theoretical research?
- Is the category to which an object is intended to belong by the
author/designer commonly taken into account by the subjects in the
categorization tasks? If so, to what extent?
- Do functional criteria prevail over formal ones in the categorization of
artifacts? And in any case, which type of functional criteria prevail? For
instance, do they consist in use functions or functions intended by the
designer, or in some specification/integration of these two?
- How are we to characterize the ?intended function(s)? of an artefact
produced by a complex intentional process involving many mental states,
including non conscious and non-propositional ones?
- From a philosophical point of view, the categorization of artifacts is
standardly conceived along the prototypical lines offered by the
categorization of natural objects and kinds. However, it has also been
proposed that objects belonging to the same kind of artifact, unlike
natural objects, do not share a common nature. What do the
differences/analogies between (the categorization of) artifacts and natural
kinds tell us about the semantics of the corresponding terms, i.e. of
artifact kind terms and natural kind terms?

*Guest Authors
*The issue will include invited articles authored by:
Susan Gelman (University of Michigan)
Diego Marconi (University of Turin)
Pieter Vermaas (Delft University) and Wybo Houkes (Eindhoven University)

*Important dates
*Submission deadline: November 15, 2012
Target publication date: March 15, 2013

*How to submit
*Prospective authors should register at: www.editorialmanager.com/ropp to
obtain a login and select Artifact Categorization as an article type.
Manuscripts should be approximately 6,000 words. Submissions should follow
the author guidelines available on the journal's website.

*About the journal
*The Review of Philosophy and Psychology (ISSN: 1878-5158; eISSN:
1878-5166) is a peerreviewed journal published quarterly by Springer and
focusing on philosophical and foundational issues in cognitive science. The
aim of the journal is to provide a forum for discussion on topics of mutual
interest to philosophers and psychologists and to foster interdisciplinary
research at the crossroads of philosophy and the sciences of the mind,
including the neural, behavioural and social sciences. The journal
publishes theoretical works grounded in empirical research as well as
empirical articles on issues of philosophical relevance. It includes
thematic issues featuring invited contributions from leading authors
together with articles answering a call for paper.

*Contact
*For any queries, please email the guest editors:
massimiliano.carrara@unipd.it,daria.mingardo@unipd.it