Donald A Davidson
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 133547 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Donald A Davidson |
| NOMBRES | Donald A |
| APELLIDO | Davidson |
| FIRMA | DAVIDSON D A |
| AFILIACIONES | University of Stirling |
| VERIFICADO | No |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 45 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 273 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 45 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1976 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2024 |
| ÍNDICE H | 8 |
The erosion of tells
The accumulation of sediments is an inevitable consequence of human occupation at a specific locality. A wide range of results is possible with the most spectacular being the formation of mounds or tells which consist primarily of unconsolidated sediments, usually calcareous. Tells are primarily associated with the Middle East extending from the eastern Mediterranean to modern Turkey, Iran and Iraq. Lloyd was an early writer to describe their nat…
The Structure of Truth
Donald Davidson’s 1970 Locke Lectures appear in print for the first time in this volume, accompanied by an introduction highlighting their significance as a snapshot of his evolving views in the philosophy of language and describing their relationship to the work he published during his lifetime. The lectures comprise an invaluable historical document that illuminates how Davidson was thinking about the theory of meaning, the role of a truth theo…
On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme
Philosophers of many persuasions are prone to talk of conceptual schemes. Conceptual schemes, we are told, are ways of organizing experience; they are systems of categories that give form to the data of sensation; they are points of view from which individuals, cultures, or periods survey the passing scene. There may be no translating from one scheme to another, in which case the beliefs, desires, hopes and bits of knowledge that characterize one…
On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme
Philosophers of many persuasions are prone to talk of conceptual schemes. Conceptual schemes, we are told, are ways of organizing experience; they are systems of categories that give form to the data of sensation; they are points of view from which individuals, cultures, or periods survey the passing scene. There may be no translating from one scheme to another, in which case the beliefs, desires, hopes and bits of knowledge that characterize one…
Tell formation processes as indicated from geoarchaeological and geochemical investigations at Xeropolis, Euboea, Greece
An evaluation of the site specificity of soil elemental signatures for identifying and interpreting former functional areas
Developing Sassa
There is constant pressure on field archaeologists to be familiar with the core concepts of a diverse range of specialist disciplines. Soils and sediments are an integral part of archaeological sites, and soil and sedimentary analyses applied to archaeological questions are now recognised as an important branch of geoarchaeology. However, the teaching of soils in archaeology degrees is variable and many archaeologists complain they lack the confi…
Multi-element soil analysis
Quantifying the threat to archaeological sites from the erosion of cultivated soil
Ploughing is probably the greatest agent of attrition to archaeological sites world-wide. In every country, every year, a bit more is shaved off buried strata and a bit more of the past becomes unreadable. On the other hand, people must eat and crops must be planted. How can the fields be best managed to get the best of both worlds? Perhaps the most pressing need for resource managers is to know how quickly a particular field is eroding: negotiat…
An evaluation of multielement analysis of historic soil contamination to differentiate space use and former function in and around abandoned farms
Historic and prehistoric human activity can cause accumulation of elements in the soil. Multielement soil analysis has been used extensively over the last two decades to study element patterns of historic soil enrichment as a means of prospecting for sites and as an aid to interpretation of space use within archaeological structures. However, there have been surprisingly few of studies designed to assist with the interpretation of the analytical …
The management of arable land from prehistory to the present
The arable soils from two multiperiod settlements were analyzed to identify changes in agricultural methods over time. The settlement middens were also analyzed to determine whether potential fertilizers were discarded unused. Results suggest that in the Neolithic period ( ̃4000–2000 B.C. in the UK) the arable soils at Tofts Ness, Orkney, and Old Scatness, Shetland, were created by flattening and cultivating the settlements' midden heaps in situ.…
The legacy of past urban waste disposal on local soils
Historic landscape management
Turing's Test
Finds fault with Turing's answer to the question, ‘Can a computer think’? Turing believed that if the answers given by a computer and a person leave an interpreter unable to discriminate between them, then computers must be said to be able to think. The author objects that in order for a computer to think, it must mean something by the answer it gives. Consequently, without evidence for the fact that a computer not merely possesses the syntax of …
The Interpersonal Comparison of Values
Considers the question of the extent to which objective interpersonal value judgements are possible, i.e. to which extent it is possible to objectively judge a state of affairs that involves the interests of two or more people. The author's answer is not straightforward: the previous chapters have established that beliefs and desires are inextricably linked to value judgements, so that if an interpreter is to understand the propositional attitude…
Bioturbation in Old Arable Soils
The Assessment of Land Resources
It is surprising that despite all the pleas and policies regarding the development of sustainable land use systems, there is still considerable ignorance regarding the nature and significance of land resources. This paper traces the development and achievements of land evaluation during the 20th century, with particular reference to soils. The most active period was between 1950 and around 1980 with the development of soil and land capability sur…
Objectivity And Practical Reason
One part of the brain, the amygdala, is responsible for emotional or evaluative responses to perceived facts. Another part of the brain, the hippocampus, as signs to those same facts a degree of belief or subjective probability. In other words, beliefs and desires, the main explainers of action and intention, employ quite different bits of gray matter. So striking is the effect that if the amygdala of a human adult is severely damaged, the emotiv…
A reply to Macphail's comments on ?An evaluation of the contribution of soil micromorphology to the study of ancient arable agriculture
A reply to Macphail's comments on “An evaluation of the contribution of soil micromorphology to the study of ancient arable agriculture”
Modeling Traditional Manuring Practice
An evaluation of the contribution of soil micromorphology to the study of ancient arable agriculture
This article provides an overview of the development of soil micromorphological studies of ancient agriculture and the current position of research in this field. The stance adopted by the authors is deliberately combative, and it is hoped that the article will stimulate discussion of the current limitations and potentialities of the technique. The findings of this review may be summarized in three proposals: (1) Soil micromorphology cannot be us…
Micromorphological Evidence of Past Agricultural Practices in Cultivated Soils
Archaeological Sites
The essential Davidson
Introduction PHILOSOPHY OF ACTION AND PSYCHOLOGY 1. Action, Reasons, and Causes (1963) 2. The Logical Form of Action Sentences (with Comments, Criticism, and Defense) (1967) 3. How is Weakness of the Will Possible? (1969) 4. Individuation of Events (1969) 5. Mental Events (1970) (with Emeroses by Other Names (1966)) 6. Intending (1978) 7. Paradoxes of Irrationality (1982) TRUTH, MEANING, AND INTERPRETATION 8. Truth and Meaning (1967) 9. On Saying…
Multi-element soil analysis
An evaluation of the site specificity of soil elemental signatures for identifying and interpreting former functional areas
An evaluation of multielement analysis of historic soil contamination to differentiate space use and former function in and around abandoned farms
Historic and prehistoric human activity can cause accumulation of elements in the soil. Multielement soil analysis has been used extensively over the last two decades to study element patterns of historic soil enrichment as a means of prospecting for sites and as an aid to interpretation of space use within archaeological structures. However, there have been surprisingly few of studies designed to assist with the interpretation of the analytical …
Micromorphological Evidence of Past Agricultural Practices in Cultivated Soils
Soils of the Past
Palaeoenvironmental Reconstruction and Evaluation
Donald A. Davidson, Robert L. Jones, Colin Renfrew, Palaeoenvironmental Reconstruction and Evaluation: A Case Study from Orkney, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Vol. 1, No. 3, Man's Impact on Past Environments (1976), pp. 346-361
An evaluation of micromorphology as an aid to archaeological interpretation
The detailed description, analysis, and interpretation of field stratigraphy is fundamental to archaeological site interpretation. Investigation of morphology at the macro level can be supplemented by examination under the microscope of soil thin sections prepared from undisturbed samples. Until recently the main emphasis in micromorphological research associated with archaeology has been to assist with paleoenvironmental interpretation. This art…
The formation of farm mounds on the Island of Sanday, Orkney
A recent archaeological site survey of the island of Sanday on Orkney has identified a distinct concentration of 15 farm mounds. An immediate need is to determine the nature, age, and processes of formation of these very distinctive landform features. This paper reports a geoarchaeological investigation of three mounds at Westbrough, Langskaill, and Skelbrae. For the island as a whole, the mounds vary in diameter from 50 to 205 m, with deposits u…
Tell formation processes as indicated from geoarchaeological and geochemical investigations at Xeropolis, Euboea, Greece
The management of arable land from prehistory to the present
The arable soils from two multiperiod settlements were analyzed to identify changes in agricultural methods over time. The settlement middens were also analyzed to determine whether potential fertilizers were discarded unused. Results suggest that in the Neolithic period ( ̃4000–2000 B.C. in the UK) the arable soils at Tofts Ness, Orkney, and Old Scatness, Shetland, were created by flattening and cultivating the settlements' midden heaps in situ.…
The Use of Image Analysis in the Micromorphological Study of Old Cultivated Soils
The legacy of past urban waste disposal on local soils
Excavations at Three Early Bronze Age Burial Monuments in Scotland
The excavations of the cemetery groups at Balneaves, Loanleven and Park of Tongland facilitate an examination of many aspects of Bronze Age burial practices in Scotland. They are notable as much for the differences in burial ritual they imply as for the very narrow chronological period in which they were used. The three sites produced a total of seventeen 14 C dates, two of which are aberrant, with means of the remaining fifteen falling within a …
Historic landscape management
Modeling Traditional Manuring Practice
Radical Interpretation Interpreted
I'm sorry that this paper, Is Radical Interpretation Possible? (henceforth RIP), does not address question its title asks. I wish did; is a good question. I can't blame Jerry Fodor and Ernie Lepore for suspecting that it may turn out that perfectly kosher languages (like, for example, English) aren't radically I share suspicion. But unfortunately they never discuss, much less demonstrate inadequacy of, fairly elaborate account I have developed ov…
Archaeological Sites
An analysis of site catchment areas for chambered cairns on the island of Arran
Bioturbation in Old Arable Soils
A spatial analysis of neolithic chambered cairns on the island of Arran, Scotland
The island of Arran, located to the west of central Scotland, has a dense concentration of Neolithic chambered cairns. The aim of this study is to determine by using a simulation analysis the extent to which thirteen factors influenced the distribution of cairns. Overall, proximity to arable land is shown to be of particular importance but the influence of stream order, coastal type, amplitude of relief, and aspect are also demonstrated to have b…
Farm mounds in North Orkney
The long‐standing problem of the ‘gardshauger’ of Arctic Norway, as summarised by Bertelsen (1979) and Holm‐Olsen (1981) has been under investigation for a number of years. Farm mounds which appear to be very similar to the Norwegian ones have now been recognized in Orkney, where they are restricted to a type of landscape found only in Sanday and North Ronaldsay, two of the outlying islands
Erosion and prehistory in melos
Erosion and prehistory in melos
Palaeoenvironmental Reconstruction and Evaluation
Donald A. Davidson, Robert L. Jones, Colin Renfrew, Palaeoenvironmental Reconstruction and Evaluation: A Case Study from Orkney, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Vol. 1, No. 3, Man's Impact on Past Environments (1976), pp. 346-361
The Method of Truth in Metaphysics
Paradoxes of irrationality
Item consists of a digitized copy of an audio recording of a Dal Grauer Memorial Lecture delivered at the Vancouver Institute by Donald Davidson on March 28, 1981. Original audio recording available in the University Archives (UBC AT 964).
Soils and Land Use Planning
Farm mounds in North Orkney
The long‐standing problem of the ‘gardshauger’ of Arctic Norway, as summarised by Bertelsen (1979) and Holm‐Olsen (1981) has been under investigation for a number of years. Farm mounds which appear to be very similar to the Norwegian ones have now been recognized in Orkney, where they are restricted to a type of landscape found only in Sanday and North Ronaldsay, two of the outlying islands
The formation of farm mounds on the Island of Sanday, Orkney
A recent archaeological site survey of the island of Sanday on Orkney has identified a distinct concentration of 15 farm mounds. An immediate need is to determine the nature, age, and processes of formation of these very distinctive landform features. This paper reports a geoarchaeological investigation of three mounds at Westbrough, Langskaill, and Skelbrae. For the island as a whole, the mounds vary in diameter from 50 to 205 m, with deposits u…
A spatial analysis of neolithic chambered cairns on the island of Arran, Scotland
The island of Arran, located to the west of central Scotland, has a dense concentration of Neolithic chambered cairns. The aim of this study is to determine by using a simulation analysis the extent to which thirteen factors influenced the distribution of cairns. Overall, proximity to arable land is shown to be of particular importance but the influence of stream order, coastal type, amplitude of relief, and aspect are also demonstrated to have b…
What Is Present to the Mind?
There is a sense in which anything we think about is, while we are thinking about it, before the mind. But there is another sense, well known to philosophers, in which only some of the things we can think about are said to be before the mind; these are things that are before the mind when we think about anything at all, but we do not have to think about them for them to be before the mind. These are things supposed to be so directly before the mi…
An analysis of site catchment areas for chambered cairns on the island of Arran
Soils of the Past
An evaluation of micromorphology as an aid to archaeological interpretation
The detailed description, analysis, and interpretation of field stratigraphy is fundamental to archaeological site interpretation. Investigation of morphology at the macro level can be supplemented by examination under the microscope of soil thin sections prepared from undisturbed samples. Until recently the main emphasis in micromorphological research associated with archaeology has been to assist with paleoenvironmental interpretation. This art…
Park of Tongland
Four samples were collected from a vertical sequence with No 1 at the base straddling contexts 0089 and 0066, No 2 straddling contexts 0066 and 0021, No 3 in the centre of context 0021, and uppemiost No 4 between contexts 0021 and 0065. The four slides were described following the international system for thin section description (Bullock et al ., 1985). Slides No 1 and 2 were virtually identical whilst slides 3 and 4 were variations on these. It…
Balneaves
1. Structure: partially accommodated channels (0.16 to 0.80mm in width) above the pan; no aggregates; fewer channels below the pan; channel pattern - straight to curved; vughs (spherical to elongate, not normally connected) 0.4 to 0.8mm in diameter and are not orientated and have random pattern: above pan channels and vughs partially connected; pellicular grain microstructure - weakly developed. 2. Mineral components: coarse fraction: quartz grai…
Excavations at Three Early Bronze Age Burial Monuments in Scotland
The excavations of the cemetery groups at Balneaves, Loanleven and Park of Tongland facilitate an examination of many aspects of Bronze Age burial practices in Scotland. They are notable as much for the differences in burial ritual they imply as for the very narrow chronological period in which they were used. The three sites produced a total of seventeen 14 C dates, two of which are aberrant, with means of the remaining fifteen falling within a …
Radical Interpretation Interpreted
I'm sorry that this paper, Is Radical Interpretation Possible? (henceforth RIP), does not address question its title asks. I wish did; is a good question. I can't blame Jerry Fodor and Ernie Lepore for suspecting that it may turn out that perfectly kosher languages (like, for example, English) aren't radically I share suspicion. But unfortunately they never discuss, much less demonstrate inadequacy of, fairly elaborate account I have developed ov…
The Cleaven Dyke
A linear earthwork in lowland Scotland, known a couple of centuries and often thought to be connected to Roman military operations on this far north frontier, is shown to be a Neolithic feature of a kind more often seen further south in Britain
The Folly of Trying to Define Truth
Rejetant les theories minimalistes ou deflationnistes de la verite, selon lesquelles il n'existe pas de connexions importantes entre la verite et les concepts de signification et de realite, l'A. montre que le concept de verite ne peut etre defini de maniere plus fondamentale que l'a fait Aristote
The Use of Image Analysis in the Micromorphological Study of Old Cultivated Soils
A multiproxy approach to the function of postmedieval ridge-and-furrow cultivation in upland northern Britain
The remains of agricultural activity preserved beneath current rough pasture in the uplands of Tweed dale in southern Scotland are subjected to multidisciplinary analysis by archaeological survey, documentary research, and palaeoecological reconstruction through pollen analysis, supported by 210 Pb and other forms of dating. The survey showed the features to represent grooved rig, a form of ploughing presumed to be related to cereal cultivation i…
An evaluation of the contribution of soil micromorphology to the study of ancient arable agriculture
This article provides an overview of the development of soil micromorphological studies of ancient agriculture and the current position of research in this field. The stance adopted by the authors is deliberately combative, and it is hoped that the article will stimulate discussion of the current limitations and potentialities of the technique. The findings of this review may be summarized in three proposals: (1) Soil micromorphology cannot be us…
Micromorphological Evidence of Past Agricultural Practices in Cultivated Soils
Archaeological Sites
Objectivity And Practical Reason
One part of the brain, the amygdala, is responsible for emotional or evaluative responses to perceived facts. Another part of the brain, the hippocampus, as signs to those same facts a degree of belief or subjective probability. In other words, beliefs and desires, the main explainers of action and intention, employ quite different bits of gray matter. So striking is the effect that if the amygdala of a human adult is severely damaged, the emotiv…
A reply to Macphail's comments on ?An evaluation of the contribution of soil micromorphology to the study of ancient arable agriculture
Archaeology (26 obras) · Geography (26 obras) · Geology (21 obras) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (20 obras) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (13 obras) · Agriculture (12 obras) · Computer Science (12 obras) · Environmental Science (11 obras) · Soil Science (10 obras) · Soil water (9 obras)