Archaeological programmes

Abstract

The paper presents a short overview of the concepts used to observe the changes in epistemic standards of a discipline and its future potential, in respect to archaeology. The shortcomings are outlined of the common practice of structuring the theoretical approaches in archaeology into distinct, mutually exclusive modes of reasoning, implying three distinct phases, inspired by Kuhn’s concept of paradigm. The concept of a research programme, introduced by the philosopher of science Imre Lakatos, is suggested as the more productive mode of assessing the multitude of approaches present in archaeology. In this manner, it is possible to retain the diversity of epistemic proposals and to meet the challenges immanent in the character of archaeological evidence.

Keywords

• archaeological reasoning
• epistemic norms
• paradigm shift
• research programme
• Imre Lakatos