Philosophy and Archaeology
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Studies in Archaeology: Philosophy and Archaeology presents the circumstances under which archeological hypotheses can be considered confirmed or disconfirmed. This book discusses the role of analogy in archeological reasoning, particularly in ascribing functions to archeological items. Organized into seven chapters, this book begins with an overview of the relationship between archeology and philosophy. This text then examines the importance of laws for archeology and discusses some essential features of law statements. Other chapters consider the strong claims for the hypothetico–deductive method of confirmation in various works by archeologists. This book discusses as well the different uses of analogical reasoning in archeology and provides a discussion of the structure of analogical arguments, criteria for evaluating them, and their relations to the Bayesian arguments for confirmation. The final chapter deals with several issues related to the development of a theory of archeology. This book is a valuable resource for archeologists and philosophers.
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
One. Introduction
Two. Laws in Archaeology
Introduction and Examples
Some Features of Laws: Generality and Truth
Determinism and Statistical Laws
Methodological Determinism
Differences Between Laws of Physics and Laws of the Biological and Behavioral Sciences
Are There Any Laws of Archaeology?
The Importance of Laws for Archaeology
Are There Any Nontrivial Laws of Archaeology?
An Attempt to Employ Laws in an Archaeological Explanation
Conclusion
Three. Confirmation in Archaeology
Introduction
The Logic of Confirmation
The Hypothetico-Deductive Method
Relative Confirmation and Absolute Confirmation
Inadequacy of the H-D Method as a Model of Confirmation in Archaeology
Prior Probabilities
An Alternative Pattern for Confirmation
Bayes' Method
Alternative Hypotheses
Conclusion
Four. Analogy and Functional Ascription
Introduction
Form and Function
Context
Analysis and Evaluation of Arguments from Analogy
An Attempt to Provide a General Method for Ascribing Functions
Criticism of the Attempt
Ethnoarchaeology and Analogy
Conclusion
Five. Functional Explanation
Introduction and Examples of Functional Explanations
Functional Explanations Versus Functionalist Theories of Anthropology
The Consistency of Functional Explanations with Scientists' Understanding of Causality
Some Connections Between Functional Explanations and Systems
Models of the Phenomena and Models, or Patterns, of Explanation
Difficulties in Fitting Functional Explanations with Some Standard Models of Scientific Explanation
Some Inadequacies in the Standard Philosophical Models, or Patterns, of Scientific Explanation
An Attempt to Preserve Causal Features in Functional Explanations
An Attempt to Preserve Structure and Causality
Conclusion
Six. Structure of Archaeological Explanation
Introduction
Explaining the Character of a Faunal Assemblage
Structure of the Explanation
Deductive-Statistical Explanation—Explaining Regularities
Explaining the Occurrence of a Pattern
Problems with the High Probability Requirement
Causal Relevance and Statistical Relevance
Probabilistic Causes
Common Causes
Conclusion
Seven. Theory Building in Archaeology
Introduction
The Definitional Approach
Operational Definition
Systematics
Formal Theories
Mathematical Modeling
Constructing Theories by Borrowing
General Assumptions, Common-Sense Hypotheses, Induction, and Theories
Conclusion
Concluding Remarks
Bibliography
Author Index
Subject Index
Product details
- No. of pages: 203
- Language: English
- Copyright: © Academic Press 1982
- Published: December 28, 1982
- Imprint: Academic Press
- eBook ISBN: 9781483295770