THE FRENCH FOUNDATIONS OF HUTTON’S THEORY OF THE EARTH, PART ONE: HUTTON AS A STUDENT OF GUILLAUME-FRANÇOIS ROUELLE

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-38
Author(s):  
GREGORY F. W. TODD
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Chemistry Teachers ◽  
River Transport ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of Geology ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Standing Problem

ABSTRACT This contribution, in two parts, addresses a long-standing problem in the history of geology: Was the geological theory of James Hutton derived inductively from observations and scientific knowledge, or was it derived a priori as a speculative system? Hutton’s own writings do little to clarify the question, and the conflict in interpretations has remained at an impasse. This contribution proposes to resolve that conflict by focusing on the two years Hutton spent as a young man studying chemistry in Paris. I argue that Hutton studied with one of the great chemistry teachers of the eighteenth century, Guillaume-François Rouelle, and that Rouelle’s teachings provided the foundations of Hutton’s geological theory. Part One of this contribution reviews Hutton’s early studies in chemistry, and presents evidence to show that Hutton continued his chemistry studies with Rouelle in Paris from 1747 to 1749. Part One describes as well the geological content of Rouelle’s lectures, as derived from notes taken by his students, with focus on Rouelle’s methodology, his ideas on the origins of coal and limestone, and his observations on erosion and river transport. This Part concludes that Rouelle should be regarded as an important figure in the history of geology, not only in the francophone tradition, but, through Hutton, in the anglophone tradition as well. A detailed analysis of the influence of Rouelle’s teachings on Hutton’s Theory of the Earth (1788), and the development of Hutton’s overall theory, is the subject of Part Two.

THE FRENCH FOUNDATIONS OF HUTTON’S THEORY OF THE EARTH, PART TWO: HUTTON’S DEBTS TO ROUELLE

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 332-364
Author(s):  
GREGORY F.W. TODD
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Chemistry Teachers ◽  
History Of Geology ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
Degree Of Confidence ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Almost All ◽  
High Degree

This contribution, in two parts, addresses a long-standing problem in the history of geology: Was the geological theory of James Hutton derived inductively from observations and scientific knowledge, or was it derived a priori as a speculative system? Hutton’s own writings do little to clarify the question, and the conflict in interpretations has remained at an impasse. This contribution proposes to resolve that conflict by focusing on the two years Hutton spent as a young man studying chemistry in Paris. I argue that Hutton studied with one of the great chemistry teachers of the eighteenth century, Guillaume-François Rouelle, and that Rouelle’s teachings provided the foundations of Hutton’s geological theory. Part One of this contribution reviewed evidence that Hutton was a student of Rouelle’s, and concluded with a high degree of confidence, but less than certainty, that Hutton did study with Rouelle. In this Part Two, it is argued that Hutton adopted almost all the geological ideas found in Rouelle’s lectures. This Part Two also proposes a reconstruction of the development of Hutton’s cyclical model of Earth strata, taken as the starting point of his broader theory, to show that it developed from observations and inductions, and his study with Rouelle, and was not developed as an a priori system. That conclusion will require a new interpretation of Hutton’s theory, which should now be understood as part of a continuum of geological knowledge developing during the eighteenth century.

Teaching the History of Geology

1993 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 234-242
Author(s):  
David Leveson
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Brooklyn College ◽  
Original Writings ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of Geology ◽  
Current Belief ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Undergraduate Science ◽  
Sophisticated Technology

The content and form of a course in the history of geology are dictated by the nature of the subject matter, the conceived purpose of the course, the background of the instructor and the students who participate, and the availability of appropriate readings. In an undergraduate course just offered by the Brooklyn College Geology Department, half the class were geology majors, half non-science majors. The stated aim of the course was epistemological: a consideration of how one comes to believe something. Investigation was pursued through a comparison of different historiographic accounts of major ideas, episodes and figures in the history of geology: the age of the earth; the meaning of fossils; 17th and 18th C ‘theories of the earth’; the denudation dilemma; the basalt and granite controversies; directionalism; Lyell's ‘uniformitarianism’; fluvialism, diluvialism, and glacialism. Where possible, original writings were consulted; the recent advent of a low cost reprint of Lyell's "Principles" was particularly fortunate. Inevitably, the methods, boundaries, controls, and workings of science were questioned, as was the meaning of ‘truth.’ The history of geology is a particularly useful tool for such an epistemological investigation because, prior to its mid-19th C professionalization, geology was relatively free of arcane jargon or sophisticated technology; thus, it is accessible to students with minimal scientific background. The students came to appreciate the relative character of knowledge and the probable evanescence of current belief. As for myself, trained as a geologist, I came to respect the insights and problems of historians, philosophers and sociologists, and to appreciate the pitfalls and opportunities of teaching in an area beyond one's expertise. Going out on a limb, I suggest that a course in the history of geology could serve well as partially fulfilling undergraduate science requirements.

Knowledge From Underground: Leibniz Mines the Enlightenment

1997 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Hamm
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Administrative Work ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of Geology ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Mining Machinery ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Fantastic

The history of geology has focused largely on the foundations of geology in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Considerable attention has also been given to grand theories of the earth, or cosmogonies, of the seventeenth century. This approach has left out most of eighteenth-century mineralogy; it has also left out mining. The argument here is that Leibniz's Protogaea is best understood in the context of the Harz mines, where Leibniz spent considerable energy doing administrative work and inventing new mining machinery. By looking to the mines we not only make sense of Protogaea, but of most of German mineralogy in the eighteenth century. J. G. Lehmann, J. F. W. Charpentier, C. G. Delius and many other practitioners working in and around mines were deeply concerned with mapping the subterranean structure of the earth's crust and they contrasted their work with the "fantastic" world of theorists. The Freiberg Mining Academy, other institutions, and the way vocabularies of mining changed will also be considered. Finally there are some concluding thoughts on why mining has almost disappeared from the history of geology.

A Priori in the Philosophy of Science

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 60-74
Author(s):  
Tatiana D. Sokolova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Technical Difficulty ◽  
Scientific Thought ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Model Approach

The article is devoted to the analysis of research approaches and attitudes to the study of the a priori in the philosophy of science. In the first part, I outline the basic premises of this study: (a) scientific knowledge as the highest manifestation of rationality; (b) the normative nature of scientific knowledge. In the second part, I turn to the difference in the subject of philosophical research on the history of science – the history of science as a “history of facts” vs the history of science as a history of scientific thought. The third part discusses the main theoretical and technical difficulty associated with changing the subject of research – the possibility of a transition from historical fact to “scientific thought at the time of its birth” (in Helene Metzger terminology). The forth part is devoted to the analysis of the “model approach” (Arianna Betti, Hein van den Berg) in philosophy as a possible way to overcome this difficulty and includes both theoretical and technical aspects of the future direction of research. In conclusion, consequences are drawn about the possibility of using the “model approach” for reconstruction a priori in the history of science as “constitutive elements of scientific knowledge” (David Stump).

A ‘milky mass’ and ‘uniform material’: white marble in eighteenth-century French discourses on sculpture and geology

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-225
Author(s):  
Marthe Kretzschmar
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Grain Size ◽  
Denis Diderot ◽  
Art Theory ◽  
White Marble ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of ◽  
Interdisciplinary Network

Knowledge of the materiality of stone during the Enlightenment expanded following the exploration of mineralogical structure, to alter ideas about taxonomy and challenge the role of rocks in the history of the earth. Close studies of the material of marble sculpture generated expertise on grain size, surface varieties and stone deposits. This mode of reception became intertwined with contemporary controversies about the age of the earth. This article focuses on both French sculpture and geological discourses of the eighteenth century to reveal an international and interdisciplinary network centring on protagonists such as Denis Diderot, Paul-Henri Thiry d’Holbach and Étienne-Maurice Falconet; through these figures, debates can be connected concerning both geology and art theory. Within these contexts, the article discusses the translation processes between these artistic and geological interests.

scholarly journals XIII. On the precession of a viscous spheroid, and on the remote history of the Earth

1879 ◽  
Vol 170 ◽  
pp. 447-538 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Relative Motion ◽  
Mass Motion ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Bodily Tides ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Theoretical Dynamics

The following paper contains the investigation of the mass-motion of viscous and imperfectly elastic spheroids, as modified by a relative motion of their parts, produced in them by the attraction of external disturbing bodies; it must be regarded as the continuation of my previous paper, where the theory of the bodily tides of such spheroids was given. The problem is one of theoretical dynamics, but the subject is so large and complex, th at I thought it best, in the first instance, to guide the direction of the speculation by considerations of applicability to the case of the earth, as disturbed by the sun and moon.

Schweigger’s (1812) chelonian types from the extinct eighteenth century Portuguese “Royal cabinet of natural history of Ajuda”: some contributions for their identification and nomenclatural implications

Zootaxa ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 3395 (1) ◽  
pp. 18 ◽  
Author(s):  
LUIS M. P. CERÍACO ◽  
ROGER BOUR
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Zoological Nomenclature ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Intense Debate

The work Prodromus Monographiae Cheloniorum, published by Schweigger in 1812, has recently been the subject ofseveral studies. One result of these studies—the rediscovery of the Testudo gigantea Schweigger, 1812holotype—triggered an intense debate in The Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature, where, among other issues in dispute,the identity and nature of the specimen indicated as the holotype for the species is put in question. Using historical sources,mostly unpublished, and analysis and comparison of taxidermic characteristics of the specimen with other specimens ofthe same nature, we can clearly trace its origin to the extinct Royal Cabinet of Natural History of Ajuda in Lisbon, fromthe “philosophical journey” of Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira to the specimens transported to Paris by Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire in 1808, thus helping dispel any doubts regarding the identity and nature of what is being identified as the Testudogigantea holotype, along with other chelonian specimens. This information is of great importance in the current taxonomicdebate as well as in recognizing the historic importance of the Royal Cabinet of Natural History of Ajuda and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire’s 1808 mission to Lisbon.

The History of the Earth in the hallways

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paloma Ramírez Vongrejova ◽  
María José Massé Rodríguez
Keyword(s):  
School Students ◽  
Learning Groups ◽  
Geologic Time ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Experience Teaching ◽  
Widespread Agreement ◽  
Geologic Time Scale ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Research Period

<p><span>There is widespread agreement among my fellow colleagues who teach Geology that the History of our planet is a tough topic for teenagers. Unfortunately, not only is the subject considered boring but also useless by the majority of our school students.</span></p><p><span>Our experience teaching these contents in a traditional way has shown us that pupils vaguely remember anything. In order to give a different approach to this issue and, therefore, to promote meaningful learning, we have designed a project where students must be fully engaged.</span></p><p><span>First, the class was organized in cooperative learning groups, so they had to collaborate to complete the task. Then, they started the research period using laptop computers available in the school. Students now dealt with specific vocabulary such as the geologic time scale terms but also a variety of events that occurred from the very first moments, from the formation of the Earth itself to the development of the big reptiles that have always fascinated children and adults, especially their dramatic extinction.</span></p><p> <span><span>Once the topic was developed in detail, they were required to make a poster on scale with the information collected. It was undeniable that pictures or photographs must cover most of the poster as long as short sentences describing both biological and geological phenomena. What we were also concerned about their learning was to improve their creativity. Because of this, they were encouraged to make their own drawings.</span></span></p><p><span>Students really liked the activity, built stronger relationships between them and the final products were so amazing that were exhibited in the walls of the hallways outside their classroom.</span></p><p><span>All these events have been recorded in the rocks so geologists could unfold part of the mysteries of our History. Our teenagers discovered them an represented them for us to enjoy.</span></p>

The Crime Wave: Recent Writing on Crime and Criminal Justice in Eighteenth-Century England

1986 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 380-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Innes ◽  
John Styles
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Short Life ◽  
Law Faculty ◽  
History Of ◽  
Crime Wave ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The One ◽  
Criminal Legislation

One of the most exciting and influential areas of research in eighteenth-century history over the last fifteen years has been the study of crime and the criminal law. It is the purpose of this essay to map the subject for the interested nonspecialist: to ask why historians have chosen to study it, to explain how they have come to approach it in particular ways, to describe something of what they have found, to evaluate those findings, and to suggest fruitful directions for further research. Like all maps, the one presented here is selective. The essay begins with a general analysis of the ways in which the field has developed and changed in its short life. It then proceeds to consider in more detail four areas of study: criminality, the criminal trial, punishment, and criminal legislation. This selection makes no pretense of providing an exhaustive coverage. A number of important areas have been omitted: for example, public order and policing. However, the areas covered illustrate the range of approaches, problems, and possibilities that lie within the field. The essay concludes with a discussion of the broader implications of the subject.The Development of the FieldBefore the 1960s crime was not treated seriously by eighteenth-century historians. Accounts of crime and the criminal law rarely extended beyond a few brief remarks on lawlessness, the Bloody Code, and the state of the prisons, often culled from Fielding, Hogarth, and Howard. There were exceptions, but they fell outside the mainstream of eighteenth-century history. The multiple volumes of Leon Radzinowicz's monumental History of the English Criminal Law and Its Administration from 1750 began to appear in 1948, but Radzinowicz worked in the Cambridge Law Faculty and the Institute of Criminology, and, as Derek Beales has pointed out, his findings were not quickly assimilated by historians.

Emotion, Anatomy and the Synthetic A Priori

Dialogue ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Hanly
Keyword(s):  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Logical Analysis ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Synthetic A Priori

Modern philosophy, if it has not settled any other of the chronic disputes that have troubled the history of the subject, appears to have decided once and for all the question of synthetic a priori principles. Logical analysis has demonstrated that synthetic propositions are empirical while a priori propositions are analytical and notational. Nevertheless, a broader survey of the contemporary philosophical scene reveals that the strict meaning of the expression “modern philosophy” above should be rendered “philosophers of one of the current schools of philosophy”. For contemporary European philosophers have not abandoned the notion of synthetic a priori principles altogether. They have modified without abandoning Kant's Copernican discovery of the laws of nature in the human mind. There are, to be sure, two ways of viewing the situation. Either logical analysis has overlooked certain unique phenomena and thus has failed to comprehend the arguments which take their description as premises, or existentialism has persisted in the use of an inadequate logic. The purpose of this paper is to test this issue and in doing so to explore the psychological roots of the idea of synthetic a priori principles. The means adopted is a critical study of the existentialist theory of emotion which claims to have discovered a previously unrecognized basis for synthetic a priori principles in the phenomenelogy of human existence.

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