ANT200H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Critical Thinking, Scientific Method, Relative Dating
Document Summary
The acquisition and organization of knowledge through observation, hypothesis testing and theory building. Procedure: collect data, formulate hypothesis about data, check the hypothesis using another set of data (with a new set of data, so that the conclusion is more reliable. , confirm or falsify the hypothesis. If falsified, adjust the hypothesis accordingly and start over again. The art of analyzing and evaluating thinking with a view to improving it. It encourages creativity, and that often means coming into conflict with conventional wisdom or accepted dogma. The procedure of archaeological research that is shared with any other scientific research. Critical thinking means considering all possible explanations for a phenomenon until some can be eliminated by scientific proof. An open mind, core of the scientific method: data, analysis and reasoning, explanation. In archaeology, the archaeologist"s own culture affects his/her interpretations of the past.
