
Contents
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Introduction Introduction
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Ladders, Interpretation, and Underdetermination Ladders, Interpretation, and Underdetermination
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Neandertal Mourning and Numeracy Neandertal Mourning and Numeracy
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Neandertal Mourning Neandertal Mourning
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Neandertal Numerical Cognition Neandertal Numerical Cognition
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“Thin” Cognitive Hypotheses “Thin” Cognitive Hypotheses
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Ambiguity and Cognitive Capacities Ambiguity and Cognitive Capacities
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Conclusion Conclusion
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Acknowledgments Acknowledgments
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Notes Notes
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References References
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46 Hawkes’ Ladder, Underdetermination, and the Mind’s Capacities
Get accessAdrian Currie is primarily interested in how scientists successfully generate knowledge in tricky circumstances: Where evidence is thin on the ground, targets are highly complex and obstinate, and our knowledge is limited. This has led him to examine the historical sciences—geology, paleontology, and archaeology—and to argue that the messy, opportunistic (“methodologically omnivorous”), and disunified nature of these sciences often underwrites their success. His interest in knowledge production has also led him to think about the natures of, and relationships between, scientific tools such as experiments, models, and observations, as well as in comparative methods in biology. He also has an interest in how we organize scientific communities, particularly regarding scientific creativity.
Andra Meneganzin is a philosopher of biology currently working as a postdoc at the Institute of Philosophy at KU Leuven (Belgium). She earned her doctorate from the Department of Biology of the University of Padova (Italy), with a thesis on evolutionary and epistemic issues in Homo sapiens origins and interactions with the Neandertals. Her interests revolve around the philosophy of paleoanthropology and archaeology, with recent work on the transition to behavioral and cultural complexity, species delimitation, explanations of Neandertal extinction, and character identification in human evolution.
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Published:26 January 2023
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Abstract
At base, cognitive archaeology is in the business of using the archaeological record as an inroad to the abilities and expressions of past human minds. This does important work: explaining assemblages and patterns in the record, reconstructing past societies and people, as well as testing and probing hypotheses about minds and their evolution. However, there is often a long bow to be drawn from material traces to cognition; archaeological interpretation is often underdetermined. Using “Hawkes’ ladder” as a foil and drawing on two cases of Neandertal cognition (mourning and numeracy), this chapter argues that hypotheses concerning cognitive features are not beyond archaeological inference. However, such hypotheses are often “thin”: concerning the capacities of past minds, as opposed to specific meanings or functions. Nonetheless, establishing thin hypotheses is critically important for at least two reasons. First, many productive debates in archaeology are about the cognitive requirements behind specific material traces. Second, establishing thin hypotheses about capacities is often necessary for disambiguating more detailed ideas about meaning and function, or about evolutionary histories, which affords both exploring cognitive possibility and potentially finding ways of testing between these. Inferential strategies in cognitive archaeology then can progressively circumscribe narrower forms of underdetermination, constraining and exploring the space of cognitive possibility.
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