Philosophy and archaeology

Bibliographic Information

Philosophy and archaeology

Merrilee H. Salmon

(Studies in archaeology)

Academic Press, 1982

Available at  / 17 libraries

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Note

Bibliography: p. 183-193

Includes indexes

Description and Table of Contents

Description

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

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