In this paper, I introduce a new historical case study into the scientific realism debate. During the late-eighteenth century, the Scottish natural philosopher James Hutton made two important successful novel predictions. The first concerned granitic veins intruding from granite masses into strata. The second concerned what geologists now term “angular unconformities”: older sections of strata overlain by younger sections, the two resting at different angles, the former typically more inclined than the latter. These predictions, I argue, are potentially problematic for selective scientific realism in that constituents of Hutton's theory that would not be considered even approximately true today played various roles in generating them. The aim here is not to provide a full philosophical analysis but to introduce the case into the debate by detailing the history and showing why, at least prima facie, it presents a problem for selective realism. First, I explicate Hutton's theory. I then give an account of Hutton's predictions and their confirmations. Next, I explain why these predictions are relevant to the realism debate. Finally, I consider which constituents of Hutton's theory are, according to current beliefs, true (or approximately true), which are not (even approximately) true, and which were responsible for these successes.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
J. M. Jordan;
(2016)
Ages Past: Ancient Geology and Modern Preconceptions
(/isis/citation/CBB626743731/)
Article
Dean, Dennis R.;
(1975)
James Hutton on religion and geology: The unpublished preface to his Theory of the Earth (1788)
(/isis/citation/CBB000017341/)
Chapter
Carozzi, Albert V.;
(2000)
Les Manuscrits de Horace-Bénédict de Saussure: clé de sa personnalité et de sa véritable contribution à la géologie moderne
(/isis/citation/CBB000101446/)
Book
A. M. Celâl Şengör;
(2020)
Revising the Revisions: James Hutton’s Reputation among Geologists in the Late Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
(/isis/citation/CBB747677573/)
Book
McIntyre, Donald B.;
McKirdy, Alan;
(2001)
James Hutton: The Founder of Modern Geology
(/isis/citation/CBB000470628/)
Article
Carozzi, Marguerite;
(2000)
H.-B. de Saussure: James Hutton's Obsession
(/isis/citation/CBB000101444/)
Article
Gregory F.W. Todd;
(2021)
The French foundations of Hutton's theory of the Earth, Part One: Hutton as a Student of Guillaume-François Rouelle
(/isis/citation/CBB648597760/)
Essay Review
Oldroyd, David;
(2003)
A Manichean View of the History of Geology
(/isis/citation/CBB000340485/)
Book
Newcomb, Sally;
(2009)
The World in a Crucible: Laboratory Practice and Geological Theory at the Beginning of Geology
(/isis/citation/CBB001021017/)
Article
García Cruz, Cándido Manuel;
(2013)
James Hutton (1726--1797) y el Mito del Eterno Retorno: Interpretación de la Tierra en el siglo XVIII
(/isis/citation/CBB001214080/)
Chapter
Carozzi, Marguerite;
(2000)
Hutton voit les Alpes à Travers les Yeux de H.-B. de Saussure
(/isis/citation/CBB000101445/)
Article
Leveson, David J.;
(1996)
What was James Hutton's methodology?
(/isis/citation/CBB000068119/)
Chapter
Rowland, Stephen M.;
(2002)
Mikhail Lomonosov's On the Strata of the Earth and a Comparison with the Writings of Buffon, Hutton, and Werner
(/isis/citation/CBB000201700/)
Article
Tom Furniss;
(2014)
James Hutton’s Geological Tours of Scotland: Romanticism, Literary Strategies, and the Scientific Quest
(/isis/citation/CBB886350845/)
Article
Gould, Stephen Jay;
(1982)
Hutton's purposeful view
(/isis/citation/CBB000022118/)
Article
McIntyre, Donald B.;
(1997)
James Hutton's Edinburgh: The historical, social, and political background
(/isis/citation/CBB000076595/)
Book
Dean, Dennis R.;
(1992)
James Hutton and the history of geology
(/isis/citation/CBB000042534/)
Article
Norwick, Stephen A.;
(2002)
Metaphors of Nature in James Hutton's Theory of the Earth with Proofs and Illustrations
(/isis/citation/CBB000301113/)
Book
Repcheck, Jack;
(2003)
The Man Who Found Time: James Hutton and the Discovery of Earth's Antiquity
(/isis/citation/CBB000320303/)
Chapter
Nicholas, C. J.;
Pearson, P. N.;
(2007)
Robert Jameson on the Isle of Arran, 1797--1799: In Search of Hutton's “Theory of the Earth”
(/isis/citation/CBB000951526/)
Be the first to comment!