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Measuring Time with Fossils: A Start-Up Problem in Scientific Practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Max Dresow
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Abstract

This article is about a start-up problem in scientific practice. Specifically, it is about the problem of justifying paleontological correlation—the practice of using fossils to establish time relations among fossiliferous rocks. Paleontological correlation was the key to assembling a geological timescale during the nineteenth century and remains an important practice in stratigraphic geology to this day. Yet contrary to philosophical expectations, this practice lacked a robust theoretical justification during the first half of the nineteenth century. This article examines what this lack of justification amounted to, as well as how the method of paleontological correlation was justified in practice.

Type
Measurement
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 88 , Issue 5 , December 2021 , pp. 940 - 950
Copyright
Copyright 2021 by the Philosophy of Science Association. All rights reserved.

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Footnotes

†

I would like to thank David Sepkoski, Scott Lidgard, Alan Love, and the members of Love Lab (Yoshinari Yoshida, Kelle Dhein, Nathan Lackey, Lauren Wilson, and Amanda Corris) for helpful comments at various stages of this project. I would also like to thank the audience at the Emerging Minds lecture series at the Rotman Institute of Philosophy for their generous and useful feedback.

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