Knowing the past : philosophical issues of history and archaeology

"Knowing the Past presents many valuable insights into the limits of knowledge and our ability to recover the mental as well as the physical past. Historians, archaeologists, and students of epistemology will profit from this facinating discussion."

Table of Contents

Foundations of Knowledge 22 --
Interpretation 24 --
Fact-Value Distinction 27 --
Limits of Knowledge 28 --
History and Archaeology 29 --
Role of Philosophy 33 --
Part 1 Conceptual Argument --
Chapter 2 Nature of Evidence 39 --
Intuitive Warmup 41 --
Interaction, Information, and Observation 44 --
Observation of the Human Past 49 --
Repeatable Phenomena 55 --
Chapter 3 Structure of Justification 59 --
Middle-Range Theories 61 --
Contextual Archaeology 64 --
Middle-Range Theory as Contextual Method 67 --
Chapter 4 Varieties of Independence 75 --
Value of Independence 77 --
Varieties of Independence 81 --
Texts, Archaeology, and Epistemic Independence 85 --
Chapter 5 Knowing the Past 91 --
General Model of Justification 91 --
Fact and Theory 93 --
Argument by Analogy 99 --
Kinds of Conceptual Influence 105 --
Weighted Coherence 106 --
Bootstrapping 108 --
Part 2 Empirical Argument --
Chapter 6 Athenian Cleruchies 113 --
Historical Archaeology 116 --
Hypothesis 118 --
Evidence 125 --
Negotiation between Hypothesis and Evidence 133 --
Chapter 7 Central Place Theory (written with Cynthia Kosso) 137 --
Hypothesis and Evidence 137 --
Central Place Theory 142 --
Using Central Place Theory as Middle-Range Theory 146 --
Testing, Use, and Coherence 150 --
Chapter 8 Thucydides 153 --
Peloponnesian War 154 --
What to Look For 155 --
Thucydides 159 --
Back to the Concepts 166 --
Part 3 Closing Argument --
Chapter 9 Revised Theory 171 --
Learning from the Evidence 171 --
Knowledge of Subjective Things 177 --
Truth and Justification 180 --
Knowing the Present 182 --
Asking the Right Questions 183.