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Martin Stower
August 09, 2001 11:54AM
<HTML>This of course is the well-worn ploy of trying to use the `hard' sciences as a stick to beat archaeology with - and as such, desperately naive about the topics it touches on.

You set up an opposition between archaeologist's `conjectures' and rigorous scientific dating, yet in Schoch's case (which seems to be the case you're interested in) you conceed `that there are certain unknowns associated with weathering processes which make dating via this method somewhat tentative' - or, in a word, conjectural. Moving from the particular to the general, there's a strong case for regarding not just scientific dating but science <i>per se</i> as conjectural: see in particular Popper's <i>Conjectures and Refutations</i>. The authoritarian notion of `Chemists, Physisicists and Geologists' handing down pronouncements from the mountain is untrue to the way science works.

It's interesting that John Anthony West for one rejects this facile view, questioning the `hardness' of geology and noting for example that some working geologists manage to reconcile their discipline with the creation account in <i>Genesis</i>. See the section `How hard is geology?' in the revised edition of <i>Serpent in the Sky</i>.

It occurs to me that it might not be archaeology which has nothing to contribute to this debate.</HTML>
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Mr. Fagan? A Reply?

ISHMAEL August 09, 2001 10:09AM

Re: Mr. Fagan? A Reply?

Martin Stower August 09, 2001 11:54AM

Re: Mr. Fagan? A Reply?

ISHMAEL August 09, 2001 02:56PM

Re: Mr. Fagan? A Reply?

Greg Reeder August 09, 2001 03:27PM

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ISHMAEL August 09, 2001 03:52PM

Re: Mr. Fagan? A Reply?

Greg Reeder August 09, 2001 04:41PM

Re: Mr. Fagan? A Reply?

Martin Stower August 09, 2001 08:59PM

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John August 09, 2001 02:17PM

Re: Mr. Fagan? A Reply?

Martin Stower August 09, 2001 09:06PM

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Garrett Fagan August 09, 2001 02:27PM

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ISHMAEL August 09, 2001 03:49PM

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Mikey Brass August 09, 2001 04:31PM

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Dave Moore August 09, 2001 05:36PM

Re: Mr. Fagan? A Reply?

Garrett Fagan August 09, 2001 04:33PM

Re: Stupid questions

Claire August 09, 2001 05:28PM

Re: Stupid questions

Garrett Fagan August 10, 2001 10:14AM

Re: Stupid questions

Martin Stower August 10, 2001 10:57AM

Re: Mr. Fagan? A Reply?

ISHMAEL August 10, 2001 09:33AM

Re: Mr. Fagan? A Reply?

Garrett Fagan August 10, 2001 10:33AM

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Claire August 10, 2001 01:22PM

Re: Mr. Fagan? A Reply?

Alex Bourdeau August 10, 2001 04:38PM

Re: Thank you - methodology?

Claire August 11, 2001 08:32AM

Re: Thank you - methodology?

Garrett August 11, 2001 05:21PM

Re: Mr. Fagan? A Reply?

William T. August 09, 2001 04:07PM

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Katherine Reece August 09, 2001 04:47PM

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John Wall August 10, 2001 05:29AM

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Derek Barnett August 09, 2001 04:53PM

Re: Mr. Fagan? A Reply?

Greg Reeder August 09, 2001 04:54PM

Re: Mr. Fagan? A Reply?

Dave Moore August 09, 2001 05:38PM

Re: Somebody Get A Rope smiling smiley

William T. August 09, 2001 07:05PM



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