Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Most optimistic accounts of analogies in archaeology focus on cases where analogies lead to accurate or well-supported interpretations of the past. This chapter offers a complementary argument: analogies can also provide a valuable form of understanding of cultural and social phenomena when they fail, in the sense of either being shown inaccurate or the evidence being insufficient to determine their accuracy. This type of situation is illustrated through a case study involving the mortarium, a characteristic type of Roman pottery, and its relation to the so-called Romanization debate in Romano-British archaeology. I develop an account of comparative understanding, based on the idea that humans have a natural desire to understand ourselves comparatively, i.e., in terms of how we resemble and differ from societies at other times and places. Pursuing analogies can provide this type of understanding regardless of whether they turn out to be accurate. Furthermore, analogies can provide a similar form of understanding even when the evidence turns out to be insufficient to determine their accuracy.

Archaeology. --- Archaeology --- History.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This report sets out a broad roadmap for work on the ethical and societal implications of algorithms, data and AI (ADA). Their impact on people and society shapes practically every question of public policy, but discussion is not necessarily based on a shared understanding of either the core ethical issues, or an agreed framework thatmight underpin an ethical approach to the development and deployment of ADA-based technologies. Even where there is a broad consensus on core issues, such as bias, transparency, ownership and consent, they can be subject to different meanings in different contexts – interpretation in technical applications differs to that in the judicial system, for example. Similarly, ethical values such as fairness can be subject to different definitions across different languages,cultures and political systems.