The Earth Sciences in the Enlightenment: Studies on the Early Development of Geology (Variorum Collected Studies) - Hardcover

Taylor, Kenneth L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0754659305 ISBN 13: 9780754659303

Publisher: Routledge, 2008

Synopsis

These 15 studies in the early development of geology include papers on Nicholas Desmarest, natural law in 18th-century geology and Buffons Époques de la Nature (1778).

About this title

Review:

'Clearly no review can do justice to the complex these outlined above. But I hope I have said enough to entice historians of geology to read any or all parts of this admirable collection.' ISIS '...un livre a lire absolument, pour qui desire connaitre le contexte intellectuel dans lequel la geologie commenca a emerger en France.' Geochronique 'Taylor's Variorum collection marks, in a sense, the culmination of a long and successful career in teaching and research. Yet this is his first book. This is perhaps surprising, and so too is the degree of specialisation evident in his publications. ... But out of Taylor's markedly specialised studies have emerged various important generalisations about the emergence of geology, and broad ideas about the methods and goals of geologists in the eighteenth century. ... All in all, we have in Professor Taylor's Variorum volume a valuable and coherent collection of papers, and a worthy testimony to his long years of meticulous and cautious study. ... The book is highly commended.' Metascience 'L'ouvrage, dans l'esprit de cette collection, rend ainsi accessible un bon nombre d'articles jusque-la disperses et constitue a la fois un eclairage synthetique sur la geologie du XVIIIe et une invitation a des lectures complementaires.' Revue d'Histoire des Sciences

Synopsis:

This volume is concerned with the geological sciences in the 18th century, with special emphasis on France and French scientists. A first focus is on the pioneering geologist Nicolas Desmarest, whose investigations in Auvergne and Italy (among other places) had important consequences in geological theory and practice. Desmarest emerges as a figure of intriguing complexity and refined methodological convictions, defying facile interpretation in terms of, for instance, a simple polarity between vulcanism and neptunism.Widening his inquiry beyond Desmarest, Professor Taylor also endeavors to recover key elements of the presuppositions and thought-patterns of Enlightenment geologists, and to discern how geological investigation worked during this formative period. In the era that modern geological science was beginning to take form, many of the participants are seen as struggling to define their scientific objectives and procedures by drawing from the competing frameworks of physique or natural philosophy, descriptive natural history, and antiquarian scholarship or developmental history.One of the articles (Reflections on Natural Laws in Eighteenth-Century Geology) appears here for the first time in English.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0754659305
• ISBN 13: 9780754659303
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 332