charles darwin was credited with proposing the principle of uniformitarianism.
charles darwin was credited with proposing the principle of uniformitarianism.
what scientists is credited with proposing the principle of uniformitarianism?
charles darwin
james hutton and charles lyell also contributed to early understanding of the earth's history with their observations at edinburgh in scotland concerning angular unconformity in a rock face and it was in fact lyell that influenced charles darwin greatly in his theory of evolution by speculating that the present is the key to the past. hutton first proposed the theory of uniformitarianism, which is now a basic principle in all branches of geology. hutton also supported the idea that the earth was very old as opposed to the prevailing concept of the time which said the earth had only been around a few millennia. uniformitarianism describes an earth created by the same natural phenomena that are at work today.
historical geology
uniformitarianism, also known as the doctrine of uniformity, is the assumption that the same natural laws and processes that operate in our present-day scientific observations have always operated in the universe in the past and apply everywhere in the universe. it refers to invariance in the metaphysical principles underpinning science, such as the constancy of cause and effect throughout space-time, but has also been used to describe spatiotemporal invariance of physical laws. though an unprovable postulate that cannot be verified using the scientific method, some consider that uniformitarianism should be a required first principle in scientific research. other scientists disagree and consider that nature is not absolutely uniform, even though it does exhibit certain regularities.
uniformitarianism