Towards An Ontology Of Software: A Requirements Engineering Perspective / quote 20 of 28

Artifacts have proper functions

notion of (technical) artifact. We are aware that many such notions have been discussed in the literature, but the one by Baker [20] works well for us: “Artifacts are objects intentionally made to serve a given purpose”; “Artifacts have proper functions that they are (intentionally) designed and produced to perform (whether they perform their proper functions or not)”; “What distinguishes artifactual [kinds] from other [kinds] is that an artifactual [kind] entails a proper function, where a proper function is a pur- pose or use intended by a producer. Thus, an artifact has its proper function essentia l- ly”.

Saved 21 October 2014 / www.inf.ufes.br ↗

#artifacts #objects #notion #function

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