{"id":11120,"date":"2026-10-29T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=11120"},"modified":"2026-09-05T14:25:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T14:25:53","slug":"looking-at-ian-hodders-book-2024-entangled-part-3-of-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=11120","title":{"rendered":"Looking at Ian Hodder’s Book (2024) “Entangled.”\u00a0 (Part 3 of 22)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

0022 Do artifacts exist in themselves?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course they do.  And yet, they do not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hodder packs a lot of philosophy into a few pages of denial (in S2C1).  A thing does not exist outside of its relations.  That is to say, thingness does not matter if there is no flowness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0023 Unfortunately, the term, “things in themselves”, has a pedigree in modern civilization.  Indeed, the philosophical term appears a few centuries after Aristotle’s hylomorphe fell out of favor, along with other scholastic terms, such as “substance”.  In the modern Age of Ideas,<\/em> the term, “substance”, is a shadow of what it was during the premodern Latin Age<\/em>.  Also, the term, “things in themselves” is highlighted in order for philosophers not to lose sight of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0024 The Latin term for “a thing in itself” is noumenon<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A noumenon’s observable and measurable facets<\/em> are its phenomena<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a diagram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

0025 Scientists observe and measure phenomena<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years, scientists debated whether it really is necessary (as many philosophers insist) not to lose sight of the noumenon<\/em>.  Why not just focus on phenomena?<\/em>  After all, phenomena<\/em> are what observations and measurements record<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0026 On one hand, phenomena must be attributed to something,<\/em> and that something<\/em> must exist independently of observations and measurements, so maybe one cannot escape the idea of things themselves<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0027 On the other hand, scientists observe and measure phenomena, then they build mathematical and mechanical models based on that data.  They use a precisely defined disciplinary language in order to do that.  So, why not say that the model is more important than the noumenon?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, some scientists go so far as to replace the noumenon in the above figure with a successful model.  The advantages is that the model<\/em> (standing in for the noumenon) can be objectified as its phenomena<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0028 Of course, Hodder dismisses these fine points of debate because he wants so show that things and flow go together.  So, things in themselves<\/em> cannot suddenly stand for the assemblages of activities that go into their artifactual construction, maintenance and discard<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can they?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0029 Oh, they can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

0030 The first step in natural philosophy<\/em> is to recognize that a thing<\/em> corresponds to Peirce’s category of secondness<\/em>.  Secondness<\/em> consists of two contiguous real elements<\/em>.  For Aristotle’s hylomorphe,<\/em> the real elements are matter and form<\/em>.  For scientific materialism,<\/em> the real elements are cause and effect<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0032 The problem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aristotle’s hylomorphe<\/em> cannot be reduced to a mechanical or mathematical model (or equation)<\/em>.  Many times, cause and effect<\/em> can be.  There is a difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0033 Consider a old-fashioned pendulum clock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a noumenon,<\/em> a clock’s phenomena<\/em> support observations and measurements<\/em> that can be precisely formulated by a mechanical model<\/em>.  For all practical purposes, the model of the clock<\/em> can substitute for the thing itself<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a noumenon<\/em>, nothing about the mechanical and efficient model of the clock<\/em> can tell anyone what to do at three o’clock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does that sound like the substances of [thingness] and [flowness]?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0034 So, Aristotle’s matter and form<\/em> expresses the first abstraction in natural philosophy<\/em> in regards to the noumenon,<\/em> not its phenomena<\/em>.  Of course, when an inquirer performs the first abstraction, one must take phenomena into account.  After all, phenomena<\/em> are the observable and measurable facets of a noumenon<\/em>.  If the Kant-inspired sloganeers are correct, then phenomena<\/em> cannot fully objectify Aristotle’s hylomorphe,<\/em> as the first step in appreciating the thing itself.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

0035 Indeed, in the second section of chapter one (S2C1), I discover that Hodder’s “entanglement” belongs to the noumenon,<\/em> which implies that this book is an exercise in phenomenology<\/em>.  Phenomenologists have a method for making very intelligent guesses as to the nature of the noumenon.  This helps scientists under conditions when the noumenon is either not present, lost in the mists of time, or very difficult to assess.  All three conditions apply to the archaeological excavation at Catal Hoyuk, which Dr. Hodder ran for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0036 May I say that again?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above figure<\/em> implies that entanglement <\/em>belongs to the noumenon, the thing itself<\/em>.  The first nine chapters are devoted to appreciating archaeological sites<\/em> as resolved entanglements,<\/em> where [thingness] associates to content and [flowness] goes with situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0037 May I add a comment?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A philosophical version of “entanglement”<\/em> not only re-structures Hodder’s conceptual apparatus,<\/em> but it puts scientific enterprise<\/em> on notice.  Kant’s slogan<\/em> constitutes ‘what is’ of the Positivist’s judgment.<\/em>  This is discussed at length in Razie Mah’s four-part e-work Biosemiotics as Noumenon<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, with Hodder as a sounding board, I cannot ignore the possibility that what is<\/em> of the Positivist’s judgment constitutes a confounding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

0038 Here is a picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A noumenon,<\/em> the thing itself, entangles its phenomena<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, at least its form<\/em> does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does that explain why a noumenon<\/em> cannot be objectified as its phenomena?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

0039 If Hodder is on target, and the substance of things<\/em> entangles the substance of flows,<\/em> then the thingness of phenomena<\/em> ends up initiating a flow that corresponds the empirio-schematic judgment,<\/em> which is what ought to be<\/em> of the Positivist’s judgment<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what am I saying?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biosemiotics as Noumenon<\/em> is implicated in Dr. Hodder’s discussion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

0040 The architecture of modern science<\/em> recapitulates the architecture of Catal Hoyuk<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

0022 Do artifacts exist in themselves? Of course they do.  And yet, they do not. Hodder packs a lot of philosophy into a few pages of denial (in S2C1).  A thing does not exist outside of its relations.  That is to say, thingness does not matter if there is no flowness. 0023 Unfortunately, the term, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[417],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review"],"yoast_head":"\nLooking at Ian Hodder's Book (2024) "Entangled."\u00a0 (Part 3 of 22) - An Archaeology of the Fall<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.raziemah.com\/blog\/?p=11120\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Looking at Ian Hodder's Book (2024) "Entangled."\u00a0 (Part 3 of 22) - An Archaeology of the Fall\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"0022 Do artifacts exist in themselves? 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