Vagueness, Identity, and the Dangers of a General Metaphysics in Archaeology

Archaeology is currently bound to a series of metaphysical principles, one of which claims that reality is composed of a series of discrete objects. These discrete objects are fundamental metaphysical entities in archaeological science and posthumanist/New Materialist approaches and can be posited,...

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Autor principal:	Ribeiro Artur
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	De Gruyter 2021
Materias:	archaeology objects metaphysics vagueness conjecture Philosophy (General) B1-5802
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/5e301581bbe247719762ed976ede6a5d
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:5e301581bbe247719762ed976ede6a5d
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:5e301581bbe247719762ed976ede6a5d2021-12-05T14:11:00ZVagueness, Identity, and the Dangers of a General Metaphysics in Archaeology2543-887510.1515/opphil-2020-0149https://doaj.org/article/5e301581bbe247719762ed976ede6a5d2021-02-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1515/opphil-2020-0149https://doaj.org/toc/2543-8875Archaeology is currently bound to a series of metaphysical principles, one of which claims that reality is composed of a series of discrete objects. These discrete objects are fundamental metaphysical entities in archaeological science and posthumanist/New Materialist approaches and can be posited, assembled, counted, and consequently included in quantitative models (e.g. Big Data, Bayesian models) or network models (e.g. Actor-Network Theory). The work by Sørensen and Marila shows that archaeological reality is not that discrete, that some objects cannot be easily identified, and that perhaps reality is not always necessarily composed of discrete objects. The aim of this article is to take Sørensen and Marila’s arguments to their ultimate logical consequences: most archaeological theory today operates under the illusion of a general metaphysics. This illusion dictates not only that all of reality is composed of discrete objects, but that since reality manifests in a certain way, there has to be a methodology that accurately represents that reality. A brief discussion on the notion of “conjecture,” as conceived in certain historical theories, is also presented.Ribeiro ArturDe GruyterarticlearchaeologyobjectsmetaphysicsvaguenessconjecturePhilosophy (General)B1-5802ENOpen Philosophy, Vol 4, Iss 1, Pp 20-35 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	archaeology objects metaphysics vagueness conjecture Philosophy (General) B1-5802
spellingShingle	archaeology objects metaphysics vagueness conjecture Philosophy (General) B1-5802 Ribeiro Artur Vagueness, Identity, and the Dangers of a General Metaphysics in Archaeology
description	Archaeology is currently bound to a series of metaphysical principles, one of which claims that reality is composed of a series of discrete objects. These discrete objects are fundamental metaphysical entities in archaeological science and posthumanist/New Materialist approaches and can be posited, assembled, counted, and consequently included in quantitative models (e.g. Big Data, Bayesian models) or network models (e.g. Actor-Network Theory). The work by Sørensen and Marila shows that archaeological reality is not that discrete, that some objects cannot be easily identified, and that perhaps reality is not always necessarily composed of discrete objects. The aim of this article is to take Sørensen and Marila’s arguments to their ultimate logical consequences: most archaeological theory today operates under the illusion of a general metaphysics. This illusion dictates not only that all of reality is composed of discrete objects, but that since reality manifests in a certain way, there has to be a methodology that accurately represents that reality. A brief discussion on the notion of “conjecture,” as conceived in certain historical theories, is also presented.
format	article
author	Ribeiro Artur
author_facet	Ribeiro Artur
author_sort	Ribeiro Artur
title	Vagueness, Identity, and the Dangers of a General Metaphysics in Archaeology
title_short	Vagueness, Identity, and the Dangers of a General Metaphysics in Archaeology
title_full	Vagueness, Identity, and the Dangers of a General Metaphysics in Archaeology
title_fullStr	Vagueness, Identity, and the Dangers of a General Metaphysics in Archaeology
title_full_unstemmed	Vagueness, Identity, and the Dangers of a General Metaphysics in Archaeology
title_sort	vagueness, identity, and the dangers of a general metaphysics in archaeology
publisher	De Gruyter
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/5e301581bbe247719762ed976ede6a5d
work_keys_str_mv	AT ribeiroartur vaguenessidentityandthedangersofageneralmetaphysicsinarchaeology
_version_	1718371475474350080

Vagueness, Identity, and the Dangers of a General Metaphysics in Archaeology

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