A Model of Artifact Creation Reconsidered

I examine a model of artifact creation developed by (Houkes & Vermaas 2009). I suggest a way to extend the model by regarding the agents involved in the design and making of new artifacts to be cooperating in the ‘we-mode’ as described by Raimo Tuomela. Contrary to the authors’ own claims, I suggest that their model then becomes largely compatible with the ‘intentionalist’ view of artifacts propounded by Amie Thomasson and others, according to which the nature of a new artifactual kind is essentially dependent upon the intentions of its creator. In particular the model explains how an artifactual kind can be understood via a form of collective intentionality.