Philosophy of science: A practical tool for applied geologists in the minerals industry

Abstract

For applied geologists working in the minerals industry the tasks of problem formulation, observation and data collection, interpretation and modelling invoke various philosophical considerations whether the practitioner is aware of them or not. A primary goal of applied geologists is to build models that accurately predict reality to an acceptable degree. In this paper, we describe the key philosophical frameworks proposed for conducting scientific investigations and relate them to the field of applied geology. We consider the very important differences in the types of problem confronted in experimental sciences (such as physics and chemistry) compared to the historical sciences, such as geology, where the processes studied are unique and only evidential traces of past events are available. The prediction quality of models is likely to be materially improved if the geologist is firmly and consciously practiced in the scientific method. In addition, if the predictions are framed and presented in terms of the underlying science, the quality of decisions made based on those predictions will likewise be improved. The implications for creating additional value to a project or operation can be very significant when geological models are constructed and used by a practitioner with an understanding of the philosophical basis of the activities constituting a scientific investigation. The method of multiple working hypotheses is particularly important when working in historical sciences. We argue that working within the framework of multiple working hypotheses can provide a valuable insurance against the adoption of, or persistence with, flawed models.

Keywords

Applied geology Philosophy of science Scientific method Risk Multiple working hypotheses Falsification

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alvarez

, Alvarez

, Asaro

, Michel

. 1980. Extraterrestrial cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction, Science, 208, 1095–1108.

Alvarez

, Vann

. 1978. Comments and replies on ‘Biostratigraphy and magnetostratigraphy of Paleocene terrestrial deposits, San Juan Basin, New Mexico’, Geology, 7, (1), 66–67.

Best

. 2003. Igneous and metamorphic petrology, 2nd edn, 752, New York, Wiley Blackwell.

Burroughs

. 2008. Climate change in prehistory: the end of the reign of chaos, 372, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Box

GEP

, Draper

. 1987. Empirical model-building and response surfaces, Wiley Series in Probability and Statistics, 688, New York, John Wiley.

Chalmers

. 1999. What is this thing called science?, 3rd edn, 288, Hackett, University of Queensland Press.

Chamberlin

. 1897. The method of multiple working hypothesis, The Scientific Monthly, 59, 356–362. (Reprinted from The Journal of Geology, 5, 837–848).

Champion

. 2011. http://www.the-rathouse.com/shortreviews/WhatisThisThingCalledScience.html (accessed 3 June 2011).

Cleland

. 2001. Historical science, experimental science and the scientific method, Geology, 29, 987–990.

10.

Cleland

. 2002. Methodological and epistemic differences between historical science and experimental science, Philosophy of Science, 69, 474–496.

11.

Dawkins

. 2009. The greatest show on Earth: the evidence for evolution, 480, New York, Free Press – Simon and Schuster.

12.

Deming

. 1986. Out of the crisis, 507, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

13.

Elliot

, Brook

. 2007. Revisiting Chamberlin: multiple working hypotheses for the 21st Century, BioScience, 57, 608–614.

14.

Feyerabend

. 1993. Against method, 3rd edn, 279, London, Verso.

15.

Frodeman

. 1995. Geological reasoning: geology as an interpretive and historical science, Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 107, 960–968.

16.

Frodeman

. 2000. Earth matters: the earth sciences, philosophy, and the claims of community, 209, Upper Saddle River, NJ, Prentice-Hall.

17.

Frodeman

. 2003. Geo-logic: breaking ground between philosophy and the earth sciences, 137, New York, SUNY Press.

18.

Grunsky

, Smee

. 1999. The differentiation of soil types and mineralization from multi-element geochemistry using multivariate methods and digital topography, J. Geochem. Explor., 67, 287–299.

19.

Gould

. 1987. Time's arrow, time's cycle: myth and metaphor in the discovery of geological time, 252, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press.

20.

Holmes

. 1929. A review of the continental drift hypothesis, Min. Mag., 1, 2–17.

21.

Hutton

. 1899. Theory of the earth (4 Volumes), London, The Geological Society.

22.

Jackson

, Fredericksen

, Stewart

, Vann

, Burke

, Dugdale

, Bertoli

. 2003. Geological and geostatistical risk at the Golden Gift and Magdala gold deposits, Stawell, Victoria, Australia, Proc. 5th In. Min. Geol. Conf., 215–223, Melbourne, The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.

23.

Journel

. 1974. Geostatistics for conditional simulation of ore bodies, Econ. Geol., 69, 673–697.

24.

Kitts

. 1978. Retrodiction in geology, Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, Vol. 2: Symposia and Invited Papers, 215–226, Chicago, IL, The University of Chicago Press.

25.

Kahneman

, Slovic

, Tversky

A(eds.)

1982. Judgment under uncertainty: heuristics and biases, 555, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

26.

Kuhn

. 1996. The structure of scientific revolutions, 3rd edn, 212, Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press.

27.

Losse

. 1980. A historical introduction to the philosophy of science, 2nd edn, 248, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

28.

Lyell

. 1837. Principles of geology, (2 Volumes), 1st American edn, Pittsburg, PA, John L. Kay & Co.

29.

Matheron

. 1963. Principles of geostatistics, Econ. Geol., 58, 1246–1266.

30.

Matheron

. 1989. Estimating and choosing, 141, Berlin, Springer-Verlag.

31.

Oreskes

. 1998. Evaluation (not validation) of quantitative models, Environ. Health Perspect., 106, (Supplement 6), 1453–1460.

32.

Oreskes

. 2001. From continental drift to plate tectonics, in Plate tectonics: an insiders history of the modern theory of the earth, (ed. Oreskes

, H Le, Grande

, ed.), 3–17, Cambridge, MA, Westview.

33.

Oreskes

, Le Grande

. 2001. Plate tectonics: an insiders history of the modern theory of the earth, 424, Cambridge, MA, Westview.

34.

Oreskes

, Shrader-Frechette

, Belitz

. 1994. Verification, validation, and confirmation of numerical models in the earth sciences, Science, 263, 641–646.

35.

Platt

. 1964. Strong inference, Science, 146, 347–353.

36.

Popper

. 1958. The logic of scientific discovery, 480, New York, Harper and Row.

37.

Popper

1963. Conjectures and refutations, 582, London, Routledge.

38.

Reimann

, Filzmoser

. 2000. Normal and lognormal data distribution in geochemistry: death of a myth. Consequences for the statistical treatment of geochemical and environmental data, Environ. Geol., 39, (9), 1001–1004.

39.

Roberts

, Hudson

GRT

. 1983. The Olympic Dam copper-uranium-gold deposit, Roxby Downs, South Australia, Econ. Geol., 78, 799–822.

40.

Rosenberg

. 2000. Philosophy of science: a contemporary introduction, 191, London, Routledge.

41.

Selby

. 1991. Olympic Dam: a giant Australian ore deposit, Geol. Today, 7, 24–27.

42.

Solomon

. 1992. Scientific rationality and human reasoning, Philos. Sci., 59, 439–455.

43.

Tversky

, Kahneman

. 1974. Judgment under uncertainty: heuristics and biases, Science, 185, (4157), 1124–1131.

44.

Vann

, Jackson

, Coward

, Dunham

. 2011. The Geomet curve – a model for implementation of geometallurgy, in Proc. 1st AusIMM Int. Geometall. Conf., 35–43, Brisbane, AusIMM.

45.

Vann

, Stewart

. 2011. I think, therefore I add value: philosophy of science as a practical tool for the mine geologist, in Proc. 8th Int. Mine Geol. Conf., 49–58, Queenstown, AusIMM.

46.

Wegner

1924 The origin of continents and oceans, (Excerpt published in Foundations of biogeography – classic papers with commentaries(, Lomolino , ..), 2004, 227–294, Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press.