Constructing Data

Abstract

As we reject the naive positivist notion that we have access to the real past, we become more aware of the power of labeling and the role of argumentation. Clear explication is essential to good science. For archaeologists, this is facilitated by distinguishing syntagm, the actual evidence in its in situ contiguity, from paradigm, relations of similarity invoked in interpretation of data. Neglect of epistemological chains of signification, from syntagm to paradigm, is explained as a relict of the Common-Sense Realism that underlay conventional American science.

Keywords: Philosophy of Science, Archaeology