Sense and Sensibility – Reflections on the Epistemology and Ontology of GIS Studies

Table of Contents

• Summary

• 1.0 Introduction
  • 1.1 Aims
  • 1.2 Epistemology and ontology
  • 1.3 Social epistemology
• 2.0 The relationship between philosophical and theoretical considerations
  • 2.1 Theory
  • 2.2 Philosophy, archaeology and GIS
  • 2.3 Realism and pragmatism
• 3.0 Ontology: What archaeological entities can be studied with GIS?
  • 3.1 The characteristics of GIS data
  • 3.2 Data and data models
  • 3.3 Landscape
  • 3.4 Raw data?
  • 3.5 Transformations and cultural attributes
  • 3.6 Subjectivity and fuzziness of data
• 4.0 Epistemology: What kind of data does GIS produce?
  • 4.1 Hypotheses
  • 4.2 Relativity and non-relativity of significance
  • 4.3 Time slices
  • 4.4 Graphic outputs as interpretations
• 5.0 Epistemology: How is knowledge acquired?
  • 5.1 Correlations and predictive modelling
  • 5.2 Spatial patterns
  • 5.3 Meanings and interpretations
  • 5.4 Spatial modelling and pragmatism
  • 5.5 Cognitive and post-structural arguments
• 6.0 An example of archaeological reasoning: cognitive and post-structural approaches to visibility
  • 6.1 An Italian example
  • 6.2 Perception and the perceived
  • 6.3 Interpretation
  • 6.4 Summary: the reasoning process
• 7.0 Conclusions
  • 7.1 Threats and potentials
  • 7.2 On social epistemology
  • 7.3 Research process
• Bibliography

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Last updated: Thur Nov 11 2004