# The Metaphysics of Artifacts- a critical rationalist approach **Keywords:** framework for understanding the metaphysics of artifacts. Article type: **Abstract:** Article Info Artifacts are ubiquitous and influential in our world, but their nature and existence are controversial. Several theories have been proposed to explain Research Article the ontology of artifacts. Drawing on Popper's theory of three worlds, this paper suggests a metaphysics for artifacts along the line of a critical rationalist (CR) approach. This theory distinguishes between three realms of reality: the physical world (World 1), the mental world (World 2), and the Article history: world of objective knowledge (World 3). The paper argues that artifacts have different ontological components that correspond to these three realms, and Received 22 January 2023 Received in revised from 23 that each component is real and causal. The paper shows how this perspective can account for the intentional and functional aspects of artifacts, as well as April 2023 their dependence on plans that influence different realms of reality. The paper Accepted 17 May 2023 explains how this pluralistic ontology, compared to the rival theories, enables one to explain the relevant ontological problems of artifacts. The paper also Published online 18 June 2023 explores how this proposal can lead to a research program encompassing a broader range of technologies, such as social artifacts. In sum, the paper suggests that Popper's three worlds theory provides a rich and comprehensive **Authors:** [[Alireza Mansouri Emad Tayebi]]