Purposes in Law and in Life: An Experimental Investigation of Purpose Attribution

Abstract There has been considerable debate in legal philosophy about how to attribute purposes rules. Separately, within cognitive science, there a growing body of research concerned with questions people ordinarily purposes. Here, we argue that these two separate fields might be connected by experimental jurisprudence. Across four studies, find evidence for the claim use same criteria physical objects and In both cases, purpose attributions appear governed not so much original intention or moral value as current practice. We findings science attribution have implications jurisprudential involving purposivist interpretation.