Discussion

Abstract

This section is divided into two parts. The first highlights the difference between agentive and non-agentive functions (Sect. 4.1). The difference between having status and having responsibilities deriving from that status is considered. The second part employs our analytical schema in the light of empirical investigations (Sect. 4.2). It discusses the role of parameters, the multiplicity of factors, suggesting a plurality of policies, while critically revisiting the reasons that qualify abandonment as a negative phenomenon in cities.Keywords Agentive function • Non-agentive functions • Multiplicity • Plurality Agentive and Non-agentive FunctionsEntities can have non-agentive and agentive functions (Searle 1995, p. 20 ff.). Nonagentive functions do not depend on human agents; they exist in the physical world independently from us. Instead, agentive functions do depend on us; their existence and persistence are human-dependent.In regard to agentive functions, Searle (1995, pp. 20-21) stresses:Sometimes the assignment of function has to do with our immediate purposes, whether practical, gastronomic, aesthetic, educational or whatever. When we say, 'This stone is a paperweight', 'This object is a screwdriver' or 'This is a chair', these three functional notions mark uses to which we put objects, functions that we do not discover and that do not occur naturally, but that are assigned relative to the practical interests of conscious agents. … Thus bathtubs, coins and screwdrivers require continued use on our part in order to function as bathtubs, coins and screwdrivers, but heart and livers continue to function as hearts and livers even when no one is paying any attention (emphasis added). 1In the light of all this and resuming to our main issue, we may observe that buildings matter to us mainly for their agentive functions, rather than for their nonagentive functions.1 Further elaborations on Searle's distinction between agentive and non-agentive functions can be found in Kroes (2003), Tieffenbach (2010) and Loddo (2016. Loddo (2016) notes that agentive functions are introduced by social agents and allow them to adapt/modify reality, while non-agentive functions are discovered by social agents and represent mostly constraints and uncertainties of reality for them.