From: Charles Carrigan (cwcarrig@umich.edu)
Date: Fri Aug 22 2003 - 10:31:41 EDT
At 12:08 PM 8/21/2003 -0400, Jay Willingham wrote:
>Perhaps there is a fact proof continuum, with proof of absolute fact at one
>end and proof of clear falsehood at the other, with theory and hypothesis
>lying in between.
A curious example of an idea evolving from hypothesis to fact in the field
of geology - Many decades ago, there was a debate in the field of igneous
petrology over whether or not granites were formed by crystallizing from
liquid melts (the "magmatists"), or by hydrothermal alterations of deep
crust in place (the "granitizers"). James Hutton was one of the first who
believed they were formed from liquids, but the debate was not ended until
(by and large) the experimental work by N.L. Bohen in the early-mid
1900's. Nowadays, it is taught as a fact that granites form from liquid
melts. And rightly so, because the evidence is overwhelming. But if you
look hard enough you can still find a "granitizer" around here and there,
who will argue till he's blue-in-the-face that granite plutons cannot have
formed by crystallizing from liquid silicate melts. It is a curious thing,
but for some reason there always seems to be folks who hold on to things
like this, probably in every field - ideas that are outdated by so many
miles of data and reason.
>So, too, is a prideful, dismissive attitude about opposing views.
True. But there are viewpoints, like the ones held by our beloved
granitizer, that are totally ridiculous and should be dismissed based upon
the megagrams of data that show the idea to be clearly false. And it is
hard to blame modern igneous petrologists for being totally dismissive
towards those who hold on to these ideas - they clearly aren't taking all
of the data into account.
Charles
______________________________________________
Charles W. Carrigan
Univ. of Michigan - Department of Geological Sciences
2534 C.C. Little Bldg.
425 E. University Ave.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1063
<mailto:cwcarrig@umich.edu>cwcarrig@umich.edu
fax: (734) 763-4690
<http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cwcarrig/>http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cwcarrig/
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