Time's arrow, time's cycle : myth and metaphor in the discovery of geological time
著者
書誌事項
Time's arrow, time's cycle : myth and metaphor in the discovery of geological time
（The Jerusalem-Harvard lectures）
Harvard University Press, 1987
- alk.paper (cloth)
- paper
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注記
Bibliography: p. 211-215
Includes index
内容説明・目次
- 巻冊次
-
alk.paper (cloth) ISBN 9780674891982
内容説明
Rarely has a scholar attained such popular acclaim merely by doing what he does best and enjoys most. But such is Stephen Jay Gould's command of paleontology and evolutionary theory, and his gift for brilliant explication, that he has brought dust and dead bones to life, and developed an immense following for the seeming arcana of this field.
In "Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle" his subject is nothing less than geology's signal contribution to human thought--the discovery of "deep time," the vastness of earth's history, a history so ancient that we can comprehend it only as metaphor. He follows a single thread through three documents that mark the transition in our thinking from thousands to billions of years: Thomas Burnet's four-volume "Sacred Theory of the Earth" (1680-1690), James Hutton's "Theory of the Earth" (1795), and Charles Lyell's three-volume "Principles of Geology" (1830-1833).
Gould's major theme is the role of metaphor in the formulation and testing of scientific theories--in this case the insight provided by the oldest traditional dichotomy of Judeo-Christian thought: the directionality of time's arrow or the immanence of time's cycle. Gould follows these metaphors through these three great documents and shows how their influence, more than the empirical observation of rocks in the field, provoked the supposed discovery of deep time by Hutton and Lyell. Gould breaks through the traditional "cardboard" history of geological textbooks (the progressive march to truth inspired by more and better observations) by showing that Burnet, the villain of conventional accounts, was a rationalist (not a theologically driven miracle-monger) whose rich reconstruction of earth history emphasized the need for both time's arrow (narrative history) and time's cycle (immanent laws), while Hutton and Lyell, our traditional heroes, denied the richness of history by their exclusive focus upon time's Arrow.
- 巻冊次
-
paper ISBN 9780674891999
内容説明
Rarely has a scholar attained such popular acclaim merely by doing what he does best and enjoys most. But such is Stephen Jay Gould's command of paleontology and evolutionary theory, and his gift for brilliant explication, that he has brought dust and dead bones to life, and developed an immense following for the seeming arcana of this field.
In Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle his subject is nothing less than geology's signal contribution to human thought-the discovery of "deep time," the vastness of earth's history, a history so ancient that we can comprehend it only as metaphor. He follows a single thread through three documents that mark the transition in our thinking from thousands to billions of years: Thomas Burnet's four-volume Sacred Theory of the Earth (1680-1690), James Hutton's Theory of the Earth (1795), and Charles Lyell's three-volume Principles of Geology (1830-1833).
Gould's major theme is the role of metaphor in the formulation and testing of scientific theories-in this case the insight provided by the oldest traditional dichotomy of Judeo-Christian thought: the directionality of time's arrow or the immanence of time's cycle. Gould follows these metaphors through these three great documents and shows how their influence, more than the empirical observation of rocks in the field, provoked the supposed discovery of deep time by Hutton and Lyell. Gould breaks through the traditional "cardboard" history of geological textbooks (the progressive march to truth inspired by more and better observations) by showing that Burnet, the villain of conventional accounts, was a rationalist (not a theologically driven miracle-monger) whose rich reconstruction of earth history emphasized the need for both time's arrow (narrative history) and time's cycle (immanent laws), while Hutton and Lyell, our traditional heroes, denied the richness of history by their exclusive focus upon time's arrow.
目次
*1. The Discovery of Deep Time * Deep Time * Myths of Deep Time * On Dichotomy * Time's Arrow and Time's Cycle * Caveats *2. Thomas Burnet's Battleground of Time * Burner's Frontispiece * The Burnet of Textbooks * Science versus Religion? * Burnet's Methodology * The Physics of History * Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle: Conflict and Resolution * Burnet and Steno as Intellectual Partners in the Light of Time's Arrow and Time's Cycle *3. James Hutton's Theory of the Earth: A Machine without a History * Picturing the Abyss of Time * Hutton's World Machine and the Provision of Deep Time * The Hutton of Legend * Hutton Disproves His Legend * The Sources of Necessary Cyclicity * Hutton's Paradox: Or, Why the Discoverer of Deep Time Denied History * Borges's Dilemma and Hutton's Motto * Playfair: A Boswell with a Difference * A Word in Conclusion and Prospect *4. Charles Lyell, Historian of Time's Cycle * The Case of Professor Ichthyosaurus * Charles Lyell, Self-Made in Cardboard * Lyell's Rhetorical Triumph: The Miscasting of Catastrophism * Lyell's Defense of Time's Cycle * Lyell, Historian of Time's Cycle * The Partial Unraveling of Lyell's World View * Epilogue *5. Boundaries * Hampton's Throne and Burnet's Frontispiece * The Deeper Themes of Arrows and Cycles * Bibliography * Index
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