social ontology

is the study of how humans impose functions upon things that would otherwise be impossible without human beings such as transforming a five-dollar into a grande latte.

Humans have the capacity to impose functions on objects and people where the objects and the people cannot perform the functions solely in virtue of their physical structure. [E.g. a five-dollar bill can't be physically transformed into a grande latte.] The performance of the function requires that there be a collectively recognized status that the person or object has, and it is only in virtue of that status that the person or object can perform the function in question. (kindle loc 194)

social ontology, n.All

social ontology