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