Design, Function, and Human Flourishing

Ryan Mitchell Wittingslow connects aesthetics and ethics to understand how designed objects acquire and maintain their functions. Building on work in philosophy of technology and design theory, Wittingslow introduces a framework based on Nelson Goodman’s concept of exemplification. He shows how designed objects can exemplify different functions in different contexts of use and evaluation, addressing a key puzzle in design theory: how do we understand objects with conflicting functions? Wittingslow is able to capture how functions can be stable enough to ground normative judgments, while remaining flexible enough to evolve through use and maintenance. This original theory, illustrating how objects shape human capabilities through their exemplified use, presents an alternative way of thinking about objects with conflicting functions. Wittingslow's philosophical analysis, grounded in design examples, creates new tools for ethical evaluation and lays the foundations for understanding functional beauty and analyzing potential design futures.