Historicism and the Rise of Historical Geology,Part 1

Collingwood R. G. , The idea of history (Oxford, 1946), 88–93.

Butterfield H. , Man on his past: The study of the history of historical scholarship (Cambridge, 1955), 39–61, and passim.

On this, see for example, Clark K. M. , The Gothic revival: An essay in the history of taste (3rd edn, London, 1962).

Mendelssohn's revival of the compositions of Bach is well known, but one may readily identify earlier examples of a rising enthusiasm for music of bygone times. It was, for example, evidenced by the series of so-called “Ancient concerts”, presented in London in the late eighteenth century. See: Mackeson C. , “Ancient concerts”, in Blom E. (ed.), Grove's dictionary of music and musicians (5th edn, 9 vols, London and New York, 1954), i, 144–5.

See Duckles V. , “Johann Nicolaus Forkel: The beginnings of music historiography”, Eighteenth century studies, i (1968), 277–90. But Forkel's position can not be regarded as that of an historicist. He was, as Duckles puts it, “a true man of the Enlightenment”.

See Daniel G. , The origins and growth of archaeology (New York, 1968).

E.g., Haber F. C. , The age of the world: Moses to Darwin (Baltimore, 1959), ch. 2 (“Historicism and the scientific revolution”); Simpson G. G. , “Uniformitarianism. An inquiry into principle, theory, and method in geohistory and biohistory”, in Hecht M. K. Steeres W. C. (eds), Essays in evolution and genetics in honor of Theodosius Dobzhansky (New York, 1970), 43–96 (republished in Albritton C. C. (ed.), Philosophy of geo-history: 1785–1970 (Stroudsburg, 1975), 256–309).

For a discussion of the various usages, see Lee D. E. Beck R. N. , “The meaning of historicism”, American historical review, lix (1965), 568–77.

For a sketch of the etymology of the terms ‘historicism’, ‘historism’ and ‘Historismus’, see Iggers G. G. , The German conception of history: The national tradition of historical thought from Herder to the present (Middletown, 1968), 287–90.

Simpson G. G. , op. cit. (ref. 7, 1975), 279–85.

Popper K. R. , The poverty of historicism (London, 1957).

Feibleman J. K. , in Runes D. D. (ed.), Dictionary of philosophy (Paterson, 1956), 127.

I do not wish to maintain dogmatically that the covering-law theory never finds application in historical explanation. But I find the description of historians' work given by John Passmore (“Explanation in everyday life, in science, and in history”, in Nagel G. H. (ed.), Studies in the philosophy of history (New York, 1965), 16–34), emphasizing the historian's use of unique and individual events in their explanations, more appropriate.

There are published precedents for the distinction that I wish to make between ‘historical’ and ‘genetic’ explanation. (See, for example, Knight I. F. , The geometric spirit: The Abbé de Condillac and the French Enlightenment (New Haven and London, 1968), 28.) Nevertheless, many writers do not make a clear-cut distinction between the two terms.

See Iggers G. G. , op. cit. (ref. 9), and also his article “Historicism”, in Wiener P. P. (ed.), Dictionary of the history of ideas: Studies of selected pivotal ideas (5 vols, New York, 1973–74), ii (1973), 456–64.

See Kantorowicz H. , “Savigny and the historical school of law”, The law quarterly review, liii (1937), 326–43.

Berlin, 1814.

von Savigny F. C. , Of the vocation of our age for legislation and jurisprudence, translated from the German … by A. Hayward (London, 1831), 134–5.

Rand C. G. , “Two meanings of historicism in the writings of Dilthey, Troeltsch, and Meinecke”, Journal of the history of ideas, xxv (1964), 503–18, p. 511.

Collingwood R. G. , op. cit. (ref. 1), pt iii, 86–133.

This view is maintained, for example, in Brumfitt J. H. , Voltaire: Historian (Oxford, 1958).

Cassirer E. , The philosophy of the Enlightenment (Princeton, 1951), 197.

de Condorcet A. -N. (tr. Barraclough J. ), Sketch for a historical picture of the progress of the human mind (London, 1955), 9—emphasis added (1st French edn, 1795). (We may note here also a remark of J. S. Mill: “The disrespect in which history was held by the philosophes is notorious; one of the soberest of them, D'Alembert we believe, was the author of the wish that all record whatever of past events could be blotted out” (The London and Westminster review, xxxiii (1839), 277).

Kant I. , Allgemeine Naturgeschichte und Theorie des Himmels (Königsberg, 1755).

Linnaeus C. , Oratio de telluris habitabilis incremento … (Leyden, 1744).

See Reill P. H. , The German Enlightenment and the rise of historicism (Berkeley, 1975).

The title of a well-known paper by Schneer C. J. (“The rise of historical geology in the seventeenth century”, Isis, xlv (1954), 256–68) is suggestive in this context.

Steno N. , The prodromus of Nicolaus Steno's dissertation concerning a solid body enclosed by process of nature within a solid … (New York & London, 1968), 230.

Waller R. , (ed.), The posthumous works of Robert Hooke, M.D. S.R.S. Geom. Prof. Gresh., etc., containing his Cutlerian Lectures, and other discourses, read at the meeting of the illustrious Royal Society (London, 1705; facsimile, New York & London, 1969), 411.

For discussions of this, see Oldroyd D. R. , “Robert Hooke's methodology of science as exemplified in his ‘Discourse of earthquakes’”, The British journal for the history of science, vi (1972), 109–30; and Turner A. J. , “Hooke's theory of the Earth's axial displacement: Some contemporary opinions”, The British journal for the history of science, vii (1974), 166–70.

Rossiter A. P. , writing in 1935, believed that Hooke's later work, with its increasing interest in Biblical chronology, compared unfavourably with the “Discourse” of 1668, and he ascribed the change in Hooke's interests and literary style to “personal misfortunes” ( Rossiter A. P. , “The first English geologist: Robert Hooke (1635–1703)”, Durham University journal, xxix (1935), 172–81). I do not find this suggestion particularly convincing.

On millenarian doctrines in Britain in the seventeenth century, see particularly Webster C. , The intellectual revolution of the seventeenth century (London, 1974), and Jacob M. C. , The Newtonians and the English revolution (London, 1976).

E.g., Steno N. , op. cit. (ref. 28), 266.

Ibid., 263.

Ibid., 263–70.

See, for example Camden W. , Camden's Britannia, newly translated into English, with large additions and improvements, publish'd by Edmund Gibson (London, 1695).

Albury W. R. Oldroyd D. R. , “From Renaissance mineral studies to historical geology, in the light of Michel Foucault's The order of things”, The British journal for the history of science, x (1977), 187–215. However, some further remarks about Buffon appear below.

Moro A. L. , Dei crostacei e degli altri corpi marini che si trovano sui monti (2 vols, Venice, 1740), ii, 428.

Ibid., 430–32.

Arduino G. , “Due lettere del sig. Giovanni Arduino sopra varie sue osservazioni naturali”, Nuova raccolta d'opuscoli scientifici e filologici, (n.s.) vi (1760), 97–132, 133–80.

Quotation from Stegagno G. , Il Veronese Giovanni Arduino e il suo contributo al progresso della scienza geologica (Verona, 1929), 24.

Ibid., 29. (This passage is from an unpublished memoir from Arduino to Ferber.).

The original of this is held in the Verona Public Library, where the Arduino papers are to be found.

For a discussion of some of the theoretical antecedents of the Wernerian school, see my paper, “Some phlogistic mineralogical schemes, illustrative of the evolution of the concept of ‘earth’ in the 17th and 18th centuries”, Annals of science, xxxi (1974), 269–305.

Lehmann J. G. , Versuch einer Geschichte von Flötz-Gebirgen (Berlin, 1756); French translation (which I have used), Essai d'une historie naturelle des couches de la terre, dans lequel on traite de leur formation, de leur situation, des minéraux, des métaux & des fossiles qu'elles contiennent; avec des considérations physiques sur les causes des tremblemens de terre & de leur propagation … (Paris, 1759). This formed the third volume of Lehmann J. G. , Traités de physique, d'histoire naturelle, de minéralogie et de métallurgie (3 vols, Paris, 1759).

Lehmann J. G. , op. cit. (ref. 45); Essai, 304.

Ibid., 326.

Ibid., 212–13.

See Adams F. D. , The birth and development of the geological sciences (New York, 1954), 376; or Berry W. B. N. , Growth of a prehistoric time scale based on organic evolution (San Francisco & London, 1968), 31.

Füchsel G. C. , “Historia terrae et maris ex historia Thuringiae, per montium descriptionem, eruta …”, Acta Academiae electoralis moguntinae scientiarum utilium, quae Erfordiae est, ii (1761), 44–208; and “Eiusdem usus historiae suae terrae et maris”, ibid., 209–54.

Hansen B. , “Füchsel, Georg Christian”, in Gillispie C. C. (ed.), Dictionary of scientific biography , v (New York, 1972), 205. Eyles V. A. (“Mineralogical maps as forerunners of modern geological maps”, The cartographic journal, ix (1972), 133–5) has pointed to examples, such as those of Guettard, that were somewhat earlier than those of Füchsel, but strictly they were mineralogical rather than geological maps.

For a discussion of the meaning of this term, see Ospovat A. M. , “Reflections on A. G. Werner's ‘Kurze Klassifikation’”, in Schneer C. J. (ed.), Toward a history of geology (Cambridge, Mass. & London, 1969), 242–56, p. 250.

Füchsel G. C. , op. cit. (ref. 50), §43.

Ibid., §50.

Ibid., §63.

Pallas P. S. , “Observation sur la formation des montagnes & les changemens arrivés au globe, particulièrement à l'égard de l'Empire de Russe; par M. P. S. Pallas lues le 23 Juin 1777 à l'assemblée de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences, que Monsieur le Comte de Gothland daigna illustrer de sa présence”, Acta Academiae scientiarum imperialis Petropolitanae pro Anno MDCCLXXVII. Pars prior (St Petersburg, 1778), 21–64.

Ibid., 24.

For an English account of Linnaeus's geological work, see Nathorst A. G. , “Carl von Linné as a geologist”, Annual report of … the Smithsonian Institution … for the year ending June 30 1908 (Washington, 1909), 711–43. On Bergman, see Hedberg H. D. , “Influence of Torbern Bergman (1735–1784) on stratigraphy”, Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis, Stockholm contributions in geology, xx (1969), 19–47. Linnaeus favoured a generalized five-fold division of the Earth's strata. Bergman's fourfold division is regarded as one of the chief sources of Werner's better known stratigraphical taxonomy.

Pallas P. S. , op. cit. (ref. 56), 46.

Carozzi A. V. (trans. and ed.), On the external characters of minerals by A. G. Werner … (Urbana, 1962).

Werner A. G. , Short classification and description of the various rocks, translated with an introduction and notes by Alexander M. Ospovat (New York, 1971).

Ibid., 128–9.

E.g., Des Herrn Nathaniel Gottfried Leske … hinterlassenes Mineralienkabinet systematisch geordnet und beschreiben auch mit vielen wissenschaftlichen Anmerkungen und mehreren äussern Beschriebungen der Fossilien begleitet, von Dietrich Ludwig Gustof Karsten … (Leipzig, 1789); Daubuisson J. F. , “De la classification orictognostique des minéraux, par Werner …”, Journal de physique, liii (an 9), 448–75; Daubuisson J. F. , “Tableau de la classification des minéraux; par M. Werner, Conseiller des mines de la Saxe, etc.: Accompagné de quelques observations sur les travaux de ce minéralogiste; par M. d'Aubuisson”, Journal de physique, lx (an 13), 171–8, 329–39.

This version is extracted from “Division et classification des montagnes et roches d'après le conseiller Werner; rédigée par MM. Hoffman et Eslinger, élèves de Werner”, Journal de physique, i (an 8), 473–6.

Ospovat A. M. , op. cit. (ref. 61), 20.

Ospovat A. M. , “The work and influence of Abraham Gottlob Werner: A re-evaluation”, Proceedings of XIIIth International Congress of the History of Science, Moscow, August 18–24, 1971, viii, 123–30, p. 127.

von Buch L. , “Ueber den Gabbro, mit einigen Bemerkungen über den Begriff einer Gebirgsart”, Der Gesellschaft naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin: Magazin für die neuesten Entdeckungen in der gesammten Naturkunde, v (1810), 128–49; von Humboldt F. W. K. H. A. , A geognostic essay on the super-position of rocks, in both hemispheres … translated from the original French (London, 1823), 3, 8, and passim; Jameson R. , System of mineralogy, comprehending oryctognosy, mineralogical chemistry, mineralogical geography, and economical mineralogy (3 vols, Edinburgh, 1804–8), iii, 67–73. Jameson entitled his fourth chapter: “General account of the different formations, in regard to their succession and stratification, and this is illustrated by a short description of the Harz and the Saxon Erzgebirge.”.

For further discussion of this point, see Albury W. R. Oldroyd D. R. , op. cit. (ref. 37).

Nieuwenkamp W. , “Buch, [Christian] Leopold von”, in Gillispie C. C. (ed.), Dictionary of scientific biography , ii (New York, 1970), 552–7, p. 552.

Delamétherie J. C. , “Idées de Werner sur quelques points de la géognosie. Extraits de ses conversations; par J. -C. Delamétherie”, Journal de physique, lv (an 10), 443–50, p. 444.

Ibid.

Ibid.

It is described in A description of the minerals in the Leskean Museum. By Dietrich Ludwig Gustavus Karsten …. Translated by George Mitchell …. Vol. I. Containing the characteristic and systematic collections … Vol. II. Containing the geological, geographical and economical collections (London & Dublin, 1798).

Karsten D. L. G. , op. cit. (ref. 73), vi.

Ibid., v.

Ibid., v.

d'Aubuisson J. F. , An account of the basalts of Saxony, with observations on the origin of basalt in general …. Translated, with notes, by P. Neill, … secretary to the Wernerian Natural History Society (Edinburgh & London, 1814), xi-xii.

Wells G. A. , “Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von”, in Gillispie C. C. (ed.), Dictionary of scientific biography , v (New York, 1972), 442–6, p. 444. For discussions of Goethe's geological work, see Magnus R. , Goethe as a scientist (New York, 1949), 151–65; Semper M. , Die geologischen Studien Goethes (Leipzig, 1914); Wells G. A. , “Goethe's geological studies”, Publications of the English Goethe Society, (n.s.) xxxv (1964–65), 92–137; Trümpy R. , “Goethes geognostisches Weltbild”, in Eidgenössische technische Hochschule, kultur und staatswissenschaftliche Schriften, no. 127 (1968), 1–37.

Coleman W. , “Abraham Gottlob Werner vu par Alexander von Humboldt, avec des notes de Georges Cuvier”, Sudhoffs Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften, xlvii (1963), 465–78, pp. 473–4.

Ibid., 474.

von Humboldt F. W. K. H. A. , op. cit. (ref. 67), 3.

Ibid., 17.

[ Fitton W. H. ], “Art. iv. Transactions of the Geological Society, established November, 1807. Vol. iii. 4to. pp. 444. W. Phillips, London, 1816”, Edinburgh review, xxix (1817), 70–94, p. 71.

von Humboldt F. W. K. H. A. , op. cit. (ref. 67), 461–4.

Something of this kind was presented in von Humboldt's paper, “Esquisse d'un tableau géologique de l'Amérique méridionale, par F. A. Humboldt”, Journal de physique, liii (an 9), 30–60, p. 60.

von Humboldt F. W. K. H. A. , op. cit. (ref. 67), 465.

Ibid., 476.

See Knowlson J. , Universal language schemes in England and France: 1600–1800 (Toronto & Buffalo, 1975), ch. 6 (“Pasigraphy in the 1790s”).