T11 From the Scientific Revolution to the Enlightenment: Emergence of Modern Geology and Evolutionary Thought from the 16th–18th Century I
Sunday, 22 October 2006
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
PRINCIPLES OF THEORY CHOICE IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES: GEOLOGY AS A PHILOSOPHICAL CASE STUDY
Paper number: T11-4
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:45 AM – 9:00 AM
Authors
Abstract
Like astronomy and evolutionary biology, geology is a “historical” as opposed to an “experimental” science. This talk discusses the philosophical issue of how to decide between competing theories when the evidence is very sparse and/or ambiguous. The aim is to make general conclusions about the methodological principles of theory choice special to the historical sciences. For example, should uniformitarianism, or its opposite, be assumed in interpreting the data, and what reasons can be given in favor of one or the other? The history of geology is used as a case study for investigating these issues, and parallels to astronomy and biology in the 16th-18th centuries are drawn.