The Meaning of Fossils: Episodes in the History of Palaeontology

By Martin J.S. Rudwick

Book Overview

"It is not often that a work can literally rewrite a person's view of a subject. And this is exactly what Rudwick's book should do for many paleontologists' view of the history of their own field."--Stephen J. Gould, Paleobotany and Palynology

"Rudwick has not merely written the first book-length history of palaeontology in the English language; he has written a very intelligent one. . . . His accounts of sources are rounded and organic: he treats the structure of arguments as Cuvier handled fossil bones."--Roy S. Porter, History of Science

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226731030
• ISBN13: 9780226731032
• Release Date: June 1985
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A phenomenal read - The development of science, and our understanding of fossils

Rudwick's primer on the meaning of fossils is a well written and engaging book which is read by many professional geologists. It explores the link between society and science; claiming that overarching world views affect the realm of possible explanations scientists and others can come up with. The world views held at different times determine what questions and interests scientists have and the spectrum on which the answer may lie. Rudwick revisits, in a lively and detailed fashion, several episodes in the history of geology demonstrating that there is a congruence between the intellectual, public and scientific milieu. He criticises the story as it is commonly told by practitioners who either consciously or due to lack of competency in history have defiled the history of their fields (whig or descriptions which make it appear as linearly progressive). The book addresses an important question which is commonly ignored and that is how practitioners defined the nature of their science. Rudwick traces the different meanings that fossils have had and explores how the understanding of what constituted a fossil affected geologists and their science. Rudwick suggests that the range of explanations which are deemed acceptable in geology seem to be in accordance not with scientific paradigms but rather, with paradigms about the nature of life, earth, God, and general world view (held by the practitioners themselves). The book remarkably misses what is arguably one of the most important transition in geology today: the transition between the 18th and 19th centuries. The author recognises this and hopes to encourage further scholarship in the area. The book explores some of the ways in which developments within science had effects on society: old fossils implied an old Earth; different forms in the fossil record implied extinction. Rudwick's mostly internalist account of geology is revealing because it shows are far more complicated picture of the progression of science. Although Rudwick does not quite state it this way - the pattern which emerges appears to be clear: it is not that paradigms are incommensurable while offering different explanations to practising scientists and that these determine their believes, allegiances, interpretations, practise and the questions they ask; nor that free floating research programs can coexist whilst exploring similar yet different phenomena by utilising different theoretical frameworks, borrowing from other research programs in order to explain phenomena. Instead the development of science much like that of ideas is contingent in the intellectual, physical, emotional and religious context in which historical actors find themselves. In Rudwick's history overarching world-views which are compatible with a vast number of explanations and research programs which determine the realm under which scientists can operate. Thus, world views determine the realm of possibilities that actors can explore and in that sense th

Good Modern Science History

I only gave this book 4 stars because parts of it can be a little difficult to follow, but anyone really interested in the history of science in general or the largely neglected history of paleontology in particular will find a wealth of fascinating information within it. For example it untangles what Cuvier really thought about geological catastrophes from the beliefs of the English geologists who used his work in support of natural theology, a topic on which there has been considerable confustion, especially in the English speaking world. Rudwick is careful to treat each topic in proper historical context that lets you understand what the people involved and their contemporaries really thought about what they were doing, not just what those developments would mean to the future. This book was written more than a decade before the "Science Wars" of the 1990's but it clearly demonstrates that it is possible to find a middle way and write science history in a way that puts each development in the proper philosophical and social context for its time, without loosing track of the fact that science is a progressive activity in which knowledge builds on itself and improves over time. The discussion of the complexities of the pre 18th century debate on the nature and origin of fossils, which seems so obvious to us today, but was far from obvious at the time, is alone worth the price of the book.

A "must read" for palaeontology students!

Rudwick chose the title "The Meaning of Fossils: Episodes in the History of Palaeontology" for his book, but I think that a subtitle more descriptive of the contents would be something like "Essays on the History of Palaeontology." A subtle difference, perhaps, but meaningful, since in many respects this book is about the people behind the fossils as much as it is about fossils themselves. The book includes the following contents:1) Fossil objects -- this section presents ideas about what people thought fossils were before they realized they were related in any way to once-living things. It also includes early work on fossils, their descriptions, the light bulb going on about where fossils really come from, and related topics.2) Natural antiquities -- this section presents an example describing how we came to the realization that fossils really are parts and pieces of things that were one alive -- all from study of fossil and living sharks' teeth. This section also describes alternative explanations (from antiquity) that explain where fossils came from...interesting stuff.3) Life's revolutions -- this section describes Cuvier's work and evidence he presented that showed that there is, in fact, a process of extinction that operates on earth. This thought, that a kind of living thing (a species), that was once alive are all now dead was a revolutionary thought! This section also introduces the notion of geologic time...deep time, of a length not realized or considered before...another revolution in thought.4) Uniformity and progress -- this section includes a description of Lyell's new view of geology and geologic processes, that an ongoing gradual process of small magnitude can, over long periods of time produce all observable geological features. That idea fed into the new ideas being applied to fossils, the appearance and disappearance of fossil species. 5) Life's ancestry -- this section discusses the importance of actually looking and seeing for one's self, as Heinrich-Georg Bronn's work did by "Being taught by nature (Natura doceri)." There is also a discussion of what "species" means, and how that plays into the whole idea of fossil and extinct things as described by the evolutionary theories of Wallace and Darwin.This is a good book with good examples. It provides an excellent historical perspective on the development of thinking relative to palaeontology. This book should be read by every student of palaeontology, and by most biology students as well!Great stuff!5 stars all the way (though the title could use a little work).Alan Holyoak, Dept of Biology, Manchester College, IN