Drifting Continents and Shifting TheoriesThis innovative book uses the story of how a modern science achieved its present shape and focus to introduce the question of the nature of scientific change and its philosophical analysis. The "modern revolution in geology" of the 1960s and 1970s saw the triumph of the global theory of plate tectonics, and decisive turning point in fifty years' controversy and competition first sparked in 1912 by Wegener's proposal of continenta drift. Here, Professor Le Grand interweaves a history of this episode of scientific change with reflective discussions of its historical, philosophical, and social circumstances, and of the development of science more generally. The approach of the book is exploratory; the reader is encouraged to be an active participant--to use the historical narrative to understand and criticize some of the more recent, influential ideas about science and scientists, to draw conclusions, and especially to pose questions about how and why changes occur in scientific knowledge and practice. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Solid as a rock? Geology before Wegener | 17 |
Wegener and his theory antecedents and arguments | 37 |
Debate around the earth | 55 |
Specialties localism and problemsolving | 80 |
Interregnum competition and stalemate | 100 |
Palaeomagnetism Drift and polar wandering | 138 |
Patterns and puzzles from the sea | 170 |
Shifting theories | 188 |
The revolution proclaimed | 229 |
Theories of scientific change and the modern revolution in geology | 267 |
| 279 | |
| 305 | |
Other editions - View all
Drifting Continents and Shifting Theories: The Modern Revolution in Geology ... Homer Eugene LeGrand No preview available - 1988 |
Common terms and phrases
accepted aims American geologists argued arguments Australia biogeography Blackett British Bullard Carey claim conceptual problems continental drift continents Contractionism Contractionists convection currents criticisms crust crustal discipline discussion Drifters early earth science earth's magnetic empirical evaluating evidence Expansionism explain favor Geological Society geologists geomagnetic geophysicists geophysics global theories Gondwana Heezen Hess Hess's Holmes Holmes's hypothesis interpretation isostasy Jeffreys kilometers Kuhn Kuhn's Kuhnian Lakatos Lamont landmasses Laudan magnetic anomaly marine geology methods mountains North America ocean basins ocean floors oceanic crust orogeny palaeomagnetic palaeontologist Pangaea paradigm patterns Permanentism Permanentists physicists physics plate tectonics polar wandering polar-wandering poles problem-fields proposed radioactive research program reversals revolution ridges rock magnetism Runcorn scientific change scientists seafloor spreading sediment seems social interests solutions solved South specialist specialties specific structures symposium techniques textbooks theoretical tion Toit traditional transform faults trenches uniformitarianism versions of Drift Vine Wegener Wegener's version Wilson