Challenges to lyell's geotheory (1832–35)
Challenges to lyell's geotheory (1832–35)
The full publication of Charles Lyell's Principles, while causing no scientific revolution, provoked intense argument among geologists. This chapter focuses on the reactions to Lyell's geotheory. In general, fellow geologists welcomed his enlarged repertoire of actual causes as capable of explaining more than had hitherto been supposed; but they rejected his claim that there had never been any events more sudden or violent than those witnessed in human history, and even more his claim that there had been no overall directionality in geohistory. Above all, they unpicked Lyell's unitary concept of “absolute uniformity” into its component meanings, some of them more plausible than others.
Keywords: Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology, geohistory, geologists, absolute uniformity
Chicago Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
