Article
ID: CBB001212345

Alexandre Brongniart (1770--1847) Shows That a “Facts First” Scientific Approach Can Lead to Large-Scale Conclusions (2013)

unapi
Empiricism Earth sciences Geology Methodology of science; scientific method 19th century Brongniart, Alexandre Cuvier, Georges

The early nineteenth century has been described as a time of `Positive Geology'. The goal was to pursue fieldwork and build the edifice of science on `facts,' thereby displacing the theorizing of previous centuries. French naturalists contributed prominently to the evolution of geoscience in that era. Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) and Alexandre Brongniart (1770-1847) were among the researchers who adhered to the `Facts First' approach to understanding nature. Brongniart is an exemplar of the dedicated empiricist, careful observer, and cautious writer who was able to see ways to synthesize facts into conclusions of far-reaching consequence. The result is that collection and description of fossils, and observation of field relationships of rock units, led to an appreciation of the theoretical power of biotic succession, biostratigraphy, the geologic column, and geologic mapping.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001212345/

Similar Citations

Article Rudwick, Martin; (1996)
Cuvier and Brongniart, William Smith, and the reconstruction of geohistory (/isis/citation/CBB000068008/)

Chapter Rudwick, Martin; (1997)
Smith, Cuvier et Brongniart, et la reconstruction de la géohistoire (/isis/citation/CBB000078028/)

Article Daszkiewicz, Piotr; Keith, Philippe; (2001)
The correspondence between Louis Agassiz and the French naturalists Georges Cuvier, Lucien Bonaparte and Alexandre Brongniart in the manuscript collections of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle and Institut de France (/isis/citation/CBB000100706/)

Article Bork, Kennard B.; (1999)
Correspondence as a Window on the Development of a Discipline: Brongniart, Cleaveland, Silliman and the Maturation of Mineralogy in the First Decades of the Nineteenth Century (/isis/citation/CBB000111709/)

Article Faria, Frederico Felipe de Almeida; (2013)
A carta de Cuvier à J.-C. Mertrud: uma introdução à Anatomia Comparada (/isis/citation/CBB001214023/)

Chapter Orr, M.; (2007)
Keeping It in the Family: The Extraordinary Case of Cuvier's Daughters (/isis/citation/CBB000953719/)

Book Babin, Claude; (2005)
Autour du catastrophisme: des mythes et légendes aux sciences de la vie et de la terre (/isis/citation/CBB000610358/)

Book Adrian Currie; (2018)
Rock, Bone, and Ruin: An Optimist's Guide to the Historical Sciences (/isis/citation/CBB457045771/)

Article Vallance, T. G.; (1981-82)
Lamarck, Cuvier and Australian geology (/isis/citation/CBB000006335/)

Article Bednarczyk, A.; (2006)
Alexander von Humboldt and General Methods of Scientific Cognition (/isis/citation/CBB000931648/)

Book Carter, Christopher; (2009)
Magnetic Fever: Global Imperialism and Empiricism in the Nineteenth Century (/isis/citation/CBB000952757/)

Article Good, Gregory A.; (2008)
Between Data, Mathematical Analysis and Physical Theory: Research on Earth's Magnetism in the 19th Century (/isis/citation/CBB000850425/)

Thesis Porter, Dahlia; (2007)
“Knowledge Broken”: Empiricist Method and the Forms of Romanticism (/isis/citation/CBB001561366/)

Chapter Penny, H. Glenn; (2003)
Bastian's Museum: On the Limits of Empiricism and the Transformation of German Ethnology (/isis/citation/CBB000501089/)

Article Siemsen, H.; (2010)
The Psychophysiological Founding of the Analogy Concept by Ernst Mach (/isis/citation/CBB001232293/)

Chapter Sibum, H. Otto; (2008)
Machines, Bats, and Scholars: Experimental Knowledge in the Late Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (/isis/citation/CBB000831245/)

Thesis Maimon, Vered; (2006)
Talbot and Herschel: Photography as a Site of Knowledge in Early Nineteenth-Century England (/isis/citation/CBB001560617/)

Article Ducheyne, Steffen; (2010)
Whewell's Tidal Researches: Scientific Practice and Philosophical Methodology (/isis/citation/CBB001021654/)

Article Roy W. McIntyre; (2020)
A look at 'Part of Scotland' on William Smith's 1815 map (/isis/citation/CBB323898242/)

Article Martin S. Brook; Susanna Ferrar; (2019)
Hartley Travers Ferrar (1879-1932) and his geological legacy in antarctica, Egypt and New Zealand (/isis/citation/CBB081481552/)

Authors & Contributors
Rudwick, Martin J.S.
Currie, Adrian
Roy W. McIntyre
Susanna Ferrar
Vallance, Thomas
Siemsen, H.
Journals
Earth Sciences History: Journal of the History of the Earth Sciences Society
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki
Histoire et Nature
Filosofia e História da Biologia
Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Publishers
Vuibert
MIT Press
Columbia University
University of Pennsylvania
American Philosophical Society
Concepts
Methodology of science; scientific method
Earth sciences
Empiricism
Geology
Historical geology; theory of the earth
Collected correspondence
People
Cuvier, Georges
Brongniart, Alexandre
Smith, William
Humboldt, Alexander von
Hartley Travers Ferrar
Lamarck, Jean Baptiste Antoine Pierre de Monet de
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
20th century, early
Enlightenment
20th century
Places
Great Britain
Antarctica
Scotland
Germany
France
Institutions
Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris
Institut de France, Paris
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment

Creative Commons License REST API