# Chapter 3 Artifacts **Opening (not a real abstract):** In the previous chapter we analysed the using and designing of artefacts in terms of the goals, beliefs and actions of the agents involved. In this chapter we switch to a perspective on artefact teleology that is more common in philosophy and engineering. This object-oriented perspective brings us to our central project of developing an adequate theory of technical functions. In this chapter, we start the project by reviewing the various function theories for artefacts that are currently discussed in the literature. This review serves two purposes. First, it establishes that existing theories about functional descriptions of artefacts are not suitable for the aims we have in mind — we argue that the currently available function theories do not meet the four desiderata that we gave in chapter 1. Second, the review is instrumental to developing our