LINGUIST List 6.1092

Sun Aug 13 1995

Disc: Uniformitarianism, Re: 1086

Editor for this issue: T. Daniel Seely <dseelyemunix.emich.edu>

Directory

1. Peter Daniels, Re: 6.1086, Disc: Uniformitarianism, Re: 1080

Message 1: Re: 6.1086, Disc: Uniformitarianism, Re: 1080

Omitted from Alexis's summary on uniformitatrianism is the note that it
was promulgated, or at least popularized, about 1800 by the geologist
Charles Lyell; it was necessary as a counter to the "catastrophism" that
explained observable geological phenomena in a way consisten t with the
ibiblical cacccount of creation. Lyell was enormously influential on
Darwin, who took the book with him on the Beagle in the latge 1830s and
formulated his first important explanations, e.g. of the formation of
coral atolls, in uniformitarian rather tan catastrophistic terms.