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Full Idea
Original parts are the best candidates for being essential to artefacts. It is hard to conceive how an object could have as essential a part which was attached at some time after the object had come into being.
Gist of Idea
Original parts are the best candidates for being essential to artefacts
Source
Peter Simons (Parts [1987], 7.4)
Book Ref
Simons,Peter: 'Parts: a Study in Ontology' [OUP 1987], p.271
A Reaction
Without its big new memory upgrade my computer would be hopelessly out of date. Simons is awesome in some ways, but seems rather confused when it comes to discussing essence. I think Wiggins may have been a bad influence on him.
| 16508 | Things are more unified if the unity comes from their own nature, not from external force [Aristotle] |
| 16117 | The hallmark of an artefact is that its active source of maintenance is external [Aristotle, by Gill,ML] |
| 12540 | Artificial things like watches and pistols have distinct kinds [Locke] |
| 12177 | Human artefacts may have essences, in their purposes [Popper] |
| 16514 | Artefacts are individuated by some matter having a certain function [Wiggins] |
| 17575 | The persistence of artifacts always covertly involves intelligent beings [Inwagen] |
| 13809 | One might be essentialist about the original bronze from which a statue was made [Forbes,G] |
| 12022 | Same parts does not ensure same artefact, if those parts could constitute a different artefact [Forbes,G] |
| 12025 | Artefacts have fuzzy essences [Forbes,G] |
| 14295 | Many artefacts have dispositional essences, which make them what they are [Mumford] |
| 12873 | Original parts are the best candidates for being essential to artefacts [Simons] |