Purposes and Means

In this chapter, the author argues that the canonical description of a weapon is that it is the means to harm. And he argues that if it is wrong to harm, then it is wrong to provide the means to harm. This amounts to the first of two things that he needs to establish if he is to show that weapons design is morally wrong. The chapter includes a general taxonomy of the purposes of artefacts and this is used to show that the means to harm is indeed the canonical description of a weapon.