Philosophy and Archaeology

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