Problems and Pitfalls in the History of Technology

Incomplete Record  Tendency to ignore the mundane  Elitism, disdain for manual work  Secrecy and isolation  Destruction of documents  Destruction of artifacts  Uncertain dates, identification of persons, unclear descriptions

Uncertain Interpretation of Artifacts  Many Artifacts are of Unknown Purpose  Purpose--may or may not have been practical  How made? One way to answer is to reproduce it using ancient methods

Fallacies of Reasoning  Oversimplification  Determinism, linear view of history.  “You can’t stop progress”  The “Voltairean Fallacy”  “You can’t turn back the clock”  Post Hoc ergo Propter Hoc (after this, therefore because of this)

Oversimplification Real issue is that theory leads to wrong conclusions Validity, not simplicity, is the issue Simplicity does not make an idea wrong

Cultural Biases

Fallacies of Reasoning Ethnocentrism  We are superior to others Reverse ethnocentrism  We are the source of all evil in the world "Chronocentrism”  Present-day values are superior to those of the past  Nobody in the past ever made accurate observations

A Lesson in Chronocentrism

There is a lack of consensus on Cause and Effect for many events in history