On The Origin Of Objects by Brian Cantwell Smith
An extended philosophical investigation into how ordinary things come to be regarded as objects, arguing they are neither purely mind-independent entities nor mere subjective constructs but are constituted through practices of discrimination, tracking, and representation. Drawing on philosophy, cognitive science, and computer science, it analyzes the conceptual and computational mechanisms—background skills, indexing, and interpretive frameworks—that stabilize and individuate objects across varying contexts. The work challenges simplistic representationalism and reductive physicalism by showing that objecthood depends on embodied, situated capacities and normative criteria for correct identification, offering a middle path that reconceives ontology and semantics in terms of the origins of objectness.
- Published
- 1996
- Nationality
- American
- Length
- Unknown
- Pages
- Unknown
- Original Language
- English
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