Thinking like a geologist: The culture of geology Mawson lecture 1996? |
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| Authors: | G Seddon |
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| Institution: | Centre for Studies in Australian Literature , University of Western Australia , Nedlands, WA, 6907, Australia |
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| Abstract: | Geology plays a crucial role in both the scientific and the popular culture; it has transformed the way ordinary people look at the world over the last two centuries. Much of this transformation is understood in terms of information about the age of the earth, the disposition of the continents, and the evolution of living things. The two main concerns of this paper are with geology as education, and geology as a system of thought, a way of thinking about the world. My central question is how does a grounding in geology affect the cast of mind, the way one thinks, perceives and behaves? What is the culture of geology? Conclusions are of two kinds. Some of the propositions advanced about the nature of geology in relation to the other sciences and our general culture are: (i) there is no hierarchy of the sciences; (ii) geology is a Romantic science rather than a Classical one; (iii) there is no such thing as the scientific method; (iv) geologists often attempt to reconcile competing hypotheses; (v) geological phenomena are often of an almost irreducible complexity and their investigation is beset by problems of scale, both spatial and temporal; and (vi) the concept of ‘universality’ has a distinctive application in geology. Among the non‐professional uses of geology are: (i) human history is incomplete without environmental history; (ii) geology has application in environmental planning and management, but this requires judgement and experience as knowledge of the geology is not enough, it is equally important to know when it can safely be overridden, when it is useful background, and when it is critically important to decision‐making; and (iii) an awareness of the geology of a region enhances the sense of place—our sense of our individual and communal identities owes much to an awareness of place. |
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| Keywords: | education geology philosophy of science typology |
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