What makes a chair a chair?

Question

Do you call a chair a chair because you sit on it, or it has four legs? A bed has the same components as well as other objects. So what makes a chair a chair?

Answer 1

Me thinks someone has been reading too much Plato.

A chair is a chair because of the form itself as a chair. The fact of it being sat upon, or that it has four legs are just subcatagories of the chair itself.

The form of the chair is closer from your choices in that it is something sat upon.

Also in book 10, Plato discusses this further in that there are 3 distinctions, with which he uses the examples of a bed and a chair.

The creator (The form itself)
The maker ( A craftsman)
The Imitator (The Artist)

Answer 2

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Answer 3

The fact that most people call it a chair! but if you want we can open a new web site and send messages to people all over the world not to call it a chair anymore. we could even ask the goverment to step in saying that the word chair is very rude and it would be politcally incorrect to use that word ever again. But i can guarentee that someone somewhere would still call it a chair. Thats what makes it a chair!!!

Answer 4

a chair is a chair because we all agree it's a chair. it would not be a chair to a polish person it would be a krsezlo. chair is a label most English speakers apply to a specific type of object. now if you had asked what makes art art, or love or even colours, then our shared understanding starts to break down. we can deal with solid reality, but when it comes to abstraction, meaning is very slippery

Answer 5

A chair is a "chair" because we define it that way. Some definitions include experience as well as descriptions.

Answer 6

Our ideas of a chair combined with our ideas about resting.
These concepts inspire creation.
Creativity is the reason behind all things.
Creative consciousness expressing itself in physical reality.

Answer 7

Design considerations for chairs have been codified into standards. ISO 9241-5:1988[2], "Ergonomic requirements for office work with visual display terminals (VDTs) -- Part 5: Workstation layout and postural requirements " is the most common one for modern chair design.

There are multiple specific standards for different types of chairs. Dental chairs are specified by ISO 6875. Bean bag chairs are specified by ANSI standard ASTM F1912-98[3]. ISO 7174 specifies stability of rocking and tilting chairs. ASTM F1858-98 specifies lawn chairs. ASTM E1822-02b defines the combustibility of chairs when they are stacked.

The Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturer's Association (BIFMA)[4] defines BIFMA X5.1 for testing of commercial-grade chairs. It specifies things like[5]:

chair backstrength of 150 pounds (68 kg)
chair stability if weight is transferred completely to the front or back legs
leg strength of 75 pounds (34 kg) applied one inch (25 mm) from the bottom of the leg
seat strength of 225 pounds (102 kg) dropped from six inches (150 mm) above the seat
seat cycle strength of 100,000 repetitions of 125 pounds (57 kg) dropped from 2 inches (50 mm) above the seat
The specification further defines heavier "proof" loads that chairs must withstand. Under these higher loads, the chair may be damaged, but it must not fail catastrophically.

Large institutions that make bulk purchases will reference these standards within their own even more detailed criteria for purchase [6]. Governments will often issue standards for purchases by government agencies (e.g. Canada's Canadian General Standards Board CAN/CGSB 44.15M [7] on "Straight Stacking Chair, Steel" or CAN/CGSB 44.232-2002 on "Task Chairs for Office Work with Visual Display Terminal" ).

Answer 8

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Answer 9

i would say that a chair is a chair because you can sit on it...

Answer 10

A chair by any other name would surely be a farce,
after all it's just somewhere to plonk your hairy a..e