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Summary
Summary
Rarely has a scholar attained such popular acclaim merely by doing what he does best and enjoys most. But such is Stephen Jay Gould's command of paleontology and evolutionary theory, and his gift for brilliant explication, that he has brought dust and dead bones to life, and developed an immense following for the seeming arcana of this field. In Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle his subject is nothing less than geology's signal contribution to human thought--the discovery of "deep time," the vastness of earth's history, a history so ancient that we can comprehend it only as metaphor. He follows a single thread through three documents that mark the transition in our thinking from thousands to billions of years: Thomas Burnet's four-volume Sacred Theory of the Earth (1680-1690), James Hutton's Theory of the Earth (1795), and Charles Lyell's three-volume Principles of Geology (1830-1833). Gould's major theme is the role of metaphor in the formulation and testing of scientific theories--in this case the insight provided by the oldest traditional dichotomy of Judeo-Christian thought: the directionality of time's arrow or the immanence of time's cycle. Gould follows these metaphors through these three great documents and shows how their influence, more than the empirical observation of rocks in the field, provoked the supposed discovery of deep time by Hutton and Lyell. Gould breaks through the traditional "cardboard" history of geological textbooks (the progressive march to truth inspired by more and better observations) by showing that Burnet, the villain of conventional accounts, was a rationalist (not a theologically driven miracle-monger) whose rich reconstruction of earth history emphasized the need for both time's arrow (narrative history) and time's cycle (immanent laws), while Hutton and Lyell, our traditional heroes, denied the richness of history by their exclusive focus upon time's Arrow.
Author Notes
Born in New York City in 1941, Stephen Jay Gould received his B.A. from Antioch College in New York in 1963 and a Ph.D. in paleontology from Columbia University in 1967. Gould spent most of his career as a professor at Harvard University and curator of invertebrate paleontology at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology. His research was mainly in the evolution and speciation of land snails.
Gould was a leading proponent of the theory of punctuated equilibrium. This theory holds that few evolutionary changes occur among organisms over long periods of time, and then a brief period of rapid changes occurs before another long, stable period of equilibrium sets in. Gould also made significant contributions to the field of evolutionary developmental biology, most notably in his work, Ontogeny and Phylogeny.
An outspoken advocate of the scientific outlook, Gould had been a vigorous defender of evolution against its creation-science opponents in popular magazines focusing on science. He wrote a column for Natural History and has produced a remarkable series of books that display the excitement of science for the layperson. Among his many awards and honors, Gould won the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. His titles include; Ever Since Darwin, The Panda's Thumb, Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes, Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle, Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory and Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin.
Stephen Jay Gould died on May 20, 2002, following his second bout with cancer. (Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Kirkus Review
From time to time, the noted Harvard paleontologist departs from the brief essay mode, reflections on Darwin, political treatises opposing racism or ""creation science,"" and adopts the pure scholarly mode of exegesis on a text. The current work falls into that category and recalls the earlier Ontogeny and Phylogeny in its originality and depth. The object of Gould's fascination is geology and the passage from the earlier belief of a young earth and a literal reading of Genesis, to the present understanding of a geologically ""deep time""--a phrase Gould likes and has adopted from New Yorker resident geologist John McPhee. ""Deep time"" means a planet whose age is measured in millions of years--time enough to create mountains and canyons, move continents, cut deep ocean trenches. Contemporary geologists regard deep time as historical time symbolized by the arrow pointing from time past to time future; it is also the time referent in the Judeo-Christian tradition in which Moses and Jesus are regarded as historical figures. Deep time can also be regarded as cyclical time, however, the eternal return of eastern mysticism, a nonhistorical recycling with no beginning or end. What Gould does is to examine these metaphors of time as reflected in three seminal works of geology: Thomas Burnet's 17th-century Sacred Theory of the Earth. James Hutton's Theory of the Earth (1795), and Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology (1830-33). And what he does is upset the scholarly apple cart by asserting that present-day geology texts largely misinterpret the ideas of these men, a misreading that hinges on the metaphor of time. So Burnet--conventionally condemned as a pious biblical literalist--is resurrected as a rational thinker who searched for natural causes for the things recorded in the Testaments. Gould focuses on the frontispiece of Burnet's volume to illustrate how Burnet reconciled time's arrow and time's cycle. In essence, the earth spirals, undergoing historical changes so that successive cycles never repeat what has gone before. Hutton is revealed to be a master cyclist: the earth is a machine without history. The reason geologists do not see him in this light may in part be because they have not read him (a ""legendary unreadability,"" Gould avers), and instead relied on Charles Playfair, who popularized Hutton's notions of geology but allowed a sense of history to creep in. Lastly, Lyell--the chronicler of ""uniformitarianism"" (natural forces act today as they have always done) turns out also to be a master expositor of the cycle metaphor. There is much to delight in Gould's revisionist history, told as always in grand style. There is also a not-so-hidden agenda. By casting the 18th and 19th centuries with wonderfully rich characters, Gould has done much to soften the textbook dichotomies of good guys vs. bad guys and restored the reputation of catastrophism--which ties in neatly with Gould's and Eldrige's punctuated equilibria theory of evolution. Fuel for the fire then, as well as perceptions of value in the social history of science. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In a deeply satisfying study, Gould pursues two concepts of time as they have influenced geological thought. The two are ``time's arrow,'' or the idea of history as directional progress, and ``time's cycle,'' or the idea that things recur in a fixed order. Gould examines these metaphors of time in the thought of three geological forefathers Thomas Burnet, James Hutton, and Charles Lyell. Explicating their major texts, he shows that none of them is quite the villain (Burnet) or hero (Hutton, Lyell) portrayed in standard histories of geology. For example, Burnet was not a biblical ideologue but a rationalist trying to square the Bible with empirical data. Gould effectively sets the record straight in this fine work of literary and pictorial analysis as well as the history of science. Another triumph for the popular author of, most recently, The Flamingo's Smile (Booklist 81:1598 Ag 85). Bibliography; to be indexed. RO. 551.7'01 Geological time Study and teaching History / Burnet, Thomas Telluris theoria sacra / Hutton, James Theory of the earth / Lyell, Charles, Sir [OCLC] 86-29485
Choice Review
Destined to become a classic. Gould uses time's arrow (direction) and time's cycle (immanence) to trace the human discovery of ``deep'' geologic time. These ``eternal metaphors'' provide a unique, refreshing, and revealing perspective on the development of geologic thought; Gould explores the metaphors in thought-provoking analyses of three great texts, their art, and their authors: Thomas Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth (1684), James Hutton, Theory of the Earth (1795), and Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology (1830-33). Throughout the discussion Gould weaves many of his favorite themes, some of which have been popularized recently in his Natural History column. For example, he rails against the tendency to trivialize history into false dichotomies (science versus religion; uniformity versus catastrophe; homology versus analogy). He tears apart ``textbook cardboard'' perpetuated by the whiggish view of history: the Burnet of textbooks is ``the archetype of a biblical idolatry that reined the progress of science,'' yet Burnet sought scientific explanations for Eden's climate and the Flood; and, we revere Playfair's version of Hutton, but not Hutton himself. Throughout Gould emphasizes science as a human activity. This engaging book will obligate most earth science teachers to rewrite their lecture notes. It contains a good index and bibliography, and is adorned with high-quality illustrations from the original texts. An absolute must for all libraries.-C. Mendelson, Beloit College
Table of Contents
| 1 The Discovery of Deep Time |
| Deep Time Myths of Deep Time On Dichotomy |
| Time's Arrow and Time's Cycle Caveats |
| 2 Thomas Burnet's Battleground of Time Burner's Frontispiece |
| The Burnet of Textbooks Science versus Religion? Burnet's Methodology |
| The Physics of History Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle: Conflict and Resolution |
| Burnet and Steno as Intellectual Partners in the Light of Time's Arrow and Time's Cycle |
| 3 James Hutton's Theory of the Earth: A Machine without a History Picturing the Abyss of Time |
| Hutton's World Machine and the Provision of Deep Time |
| The Hutton of Legend Hutton Disproves His Legend |
| The Sources of Necessary Cyclicity |
| Hutton's Paradox: Or, Why the Discoverer of Deep Time |
| Denied History Borges's Dilemma and Hutton's |
| Motto Playfair: A Boswell with a Difference A Word in Conclusion and Prospect |
| 4 Charles Lyell, Historian of Time's Cycle |
| The Case of Professor Ichthyosaurus Charles Lyell, Self-Made in Cardboard Lyell's Rhetorical Triumph: The Miscasting of Catastrophism Lyell's |
| Defense of Time's Cycle Lyell, Historian of Time's Cycle |
| The Partial Unraveling of Lyell's World View |
| Epilogue |
| 5 Boundaries Hampton's Throne and Burnet's Frontispiece |
| The Deeper Themes of Arrows and Cycles |
| Bibliography |
| Index |
