The Structure of Geology

The Structure of Geology is an account of the structure of geological knowledge that examines the complex inferential context in which statements about the past are derived and tested. Emphasized is the dependence of virtually all geological inferences upon an unquestioned background of contemporary physical theory. A theory is proposed in which the concept of the signal, so familiar in contemporary physics, is introduced in an attempt to solve some long-standing difficulties concerning geologic time. The widely held view that geology has recently passed through a scientific revolution is carefully examined and the opinion in offered that the dramatic change in earth science during the past twenty years, although in many ways like the scientific revolutions described by Thomas Kuhn, has unique features that grow out of the historical character of geology. The relationship between paleontology and evolutionary theory is also considered.