Extending the limits of nature : political animals, artefacts, and social institutions
Year of publication
2020
Authors
Toivanen, Juhana
Abstract
This essay discusses how medieval authors from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries dealt with a philosophical problem that social institutions pose for the Aristotelian dichotomy between natural and artificial entities. It is argued that marriage, political community, and language provided a particular challenge for the conception that things which are designed by human beings are artefacts. Medieval philosophers based their arguments for the naturalness of social institutions on the anthropological view that human beings are political animals by nature, but this strategy required rethinking the borderline between nature and art. The limits of nature were extended, as social institutions were considered to be natural even though they are in many ways similar to artificial products.
Show moreOrganizations and authors
Publication type
Publication format
Article
Parent publication type
Journal
Article type
Original article
Audience
ScientificPeer-reviewed
Peer-ReviewedMINEDU's publication type classification code
A1 Journal article (refereed), original researchPublication channel information
Journal
Publisher
Volume
12
Issue
1
Pages
35-44
ISSN
Publication forum
Open access
Open access in the publisher’s service
Yes
Open access of publication channel
Fully open publication channel
Self-archived
Yes
Other information
Fields of science
Philosophy
Keywords
[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]
Publication country
Italy
Internationality of the publisher
International
Language
English
International co-publication
No
Co-publication with a company
No
The publication is included in the Ministry of Education and Culture’s Publication data collection
Yes