Thinking About the Earth: A History of Ideas in Geology - Rilegato

Oldroyd, D. R.

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0674883829 ISBN 13: 9780674883826

Casa editrice: Harvard Univ Pr, 1996

Riassunto

Not quite a history of geology, Thinking about the Earth is a history of the geological tradition of Western science. Beginning with a discussion of "organic" views of the earth in ancient cultures, David Oldroyd traverses such topics as "mechanical" and "historicist" views of the earth, map-work, chemical analyses of rocks and minerals, geomorphology, experimental petrology, seismology, theories of mountain building, and geochemistry. He brings us back to the idea that the earth may, in a sense, be regarded as a living entity, or at least that life is an essential feature of its behavior.

Oldroyd offers a broad-brush contribution to the history of ideas and theories about the earth, providing a general synthesis of what science-historians have written about the history of the earth sciences. He shows us that ideas about the earth have been changing constantly since the beginnings of geological science in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and indeed that ideas changed much more rapidly after the establishment of this science than in preceding centuries.

Thinking about the Earth does not assume previous knowledge of earth science. What it does require is an openness to the notion that an understanding of what geologists have to tell us today about the earth can be achieved by examining the evolving history of ideas in geology. This book will be of considerable interest to historians of science, historians of ideas, geologists, students of earth science, and general readers as well.

Su questo libro

Informazioni sull?autore

David Oldroyd is Professor in the School of Science and Technology Studies at The University of New South Wales, Australia.

Dettagli dell'edizione

• Editore: Harvard Univ Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 1996
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0674883829
• ISBN 13: 9780674883826
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 410
• Contatto del produttore: non disponibile
• Persona responsabile: Amazon EU Sarl; 0; www.amazon.com; ; 38 Avenue John F. Kennedy; Luxembourg; 0; L-1855; Lussemburgo