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Home , Adam Sedgwick, Louis Agassiz, Thomas Henry Huxley

Lecture 10: , Natural Theology, and Time

1. Introduction Romanticism, Thermodynamics, and Geology, Stahl, Lavoisier, Goethe, and Thomson

2. Earth Theories in the 17th Century Genesis and James Ussher William Burnet: rational mechanism and Biblical theory Athanasius Kircher: earth’s circulatory system Nicolaus Steno: tongue stones, fossils, and strata : fossils and earthquakes

3. Geological Puzzles Geology and theology Origins of rocks Volcanoes, earthquakes, and recent activity Fossils: did make mistakes?

4. Earth Theories in the 18th Century Neptunism: Abraham Werner Vulcanists: Anton-Lazzaro Moro and William Hamilton Geology and natural theology Geology as a local science : earth as an endlessly cycling machine

5. Geology, Industrialization, and Society Coal Canals Geological Maps: William Smith Geological Society of Stratigraphy and the age of the earth

6. and Thermodynamics , , as Lyell and uniformity of state Sedgwick, Thomson, and the directional universe

Further Reading: , Time’s Arrow, Time’s Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time, 1987 Martin J.S. Rudwick, The Great Controversy: The Shaping of Science among Gentlemanly Specialists, 1985.

Names and Dates: James Ussher (1581-1656), 23 October 4004 BC Nicolaus Steno (1638-1686), Dissertation Concerning a Solid Body Enclosed by Process of Within a Solid (1669) Thomas Burnet (1636-1715), Sacred Theory of the Earth (1681) Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680), Mundus Subterraneus (1665) Anton-Lazzaro Moro (1687-1764), De’Crostacei e degli altri marini corpi che si truovano su’monti (1740) William Hamilton (1730-1803), Campi Phlregraei: Observations on the Volacnoes of the Two Sicilies (1776) Abraham Gottlob Werner (1750-1817) Neptunism vs. Vulcanism James Hutton (1726-1797), “Theory of the Earth” (1788) Geological Society of London, 1807 William Smith (1769-1839), Geological Map of England and (1815) Charles Lyell (1797-1875), Principles of Geology (1830-1833) vs. Uniformitarianism (1785-1873) (1807-1873) William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824-1907) (1825-1895)