Knowing the Past Philosophical Issues of History and Archaeology

by KOSSO, PETER

• ISBN13: 9781573929073
• ISBN10: 1573929077
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-10-01
• Publisher: Humanities Press

Summary

How can we know what really happened in the distant past in places like ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Greece, and Rome, especially since the evidence is fragmentary and ancient cultures are so different from our own frame of reference? In this fascinating study of epistemology, philosopher Peter Kosso argues for a coherence model of epistemic justification. In the first part, the conceptual argument, he proposes a model of knowledge of the past. In the second part he presents three detailed case studies drawn from the work of historians and archaeologists. These studies are used to support and fine-tune the model outlined in the first part. Kosso presents many insights into the limits of knowledge and our ability to know the mental as well as the physical past. Historians, archaeologists, philosophers, and students interested in epistemology will find this accessible work to be of great value.

Author Biography

Peter Kosso is professor of philosophy at Northern Arizona University.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	13	(2)
Acknowledgments	15	(2)
Introduction	17	(22)
The Principal Issues	22	(7)
Foundations of Knowledge	22	(2)
Interpretation	24	(3)
Fact-Value Distinction	27	(1)
Limits of Knowledge	28	(1)
Historyand Archaeology	29	(4)
The Role of Philosophy	33	(6)
PART ONE: THE CONCEPTUAL ARGUMENT
The Nature of Evidence	39	(20)
Intuitive Warmup	41	(3)
Interaction, Information, and Observation	44	(5)
Observation of the Human Past	49	(6)
Repeatable Phenomena	55	(1)
Summary	56	(3)
The Structure of Justification	59	(16)
Middle-Range Theories	61	(3)
Contextual Archaeology	64	(3)
Middle-Range Theory as Contextual Method	67	(5)
Summary	72	(3)
Varieties of Independence	75	(16)
The Value of Independence	77	(4)
Varieties of Independence	81	(4)
Texts, Archaeology, and Epistemic Independence	85	(4)
Summary	89	(2)
Knowing the Past	91	(22)
The General Model of Justification	91	(2)
Fact and Theory	93	(6)
Argument by Analogy	99	(6)
Kinds of Conceptual Influence	105	(1)
Weighted Coherence	106	(2)
Bootstrapping	108	(5)
PART TWO: THE EMPIRICAL ARGUMENT
Athenian Cleruchies	113	(24)
Historical Archaeology	116	(2)
The Hypothesis	118	(7)
The Evidence	125	(8)
Negotiation between Hypothesis and Evidence	133	(4)
Central Place Theory (written with Cynthia Kosso)	137	(16)
The Hypothesis and Evidence	137	(5)
Central Place Theory	142	(4)
Using Central Place Theory as Middle-Range Theory	146	(4)
Testing, Use, and Coherence	150	(3)
Thucydides	153	(18)
The Peloponnesian War	154	(1)
What to Look For	155	(4)
Thucydides	159	(7)
Back to the Concepts	166	(5)
PART THREE: THE CLOSING ARGUMENT
The Revised Theory	171	(14)
Learning from the Evidence	171	(6)
Knowledge of Subjective Things	177	(3)
Truth and Justification	180	(2)
Knowing the Present	182	(1)
Asking the Right Questions	183	(2)
Glossary	185	(5)
Bibliography	190	(7)
Index	197