As a collection of
Models,
Theories and
Explanations,
Geology offers “an evidence-based understanding of planet Earth’s
history”. As a discipline and artefact of Cultural Evolution,
it also “encases the history and cultures of those who organized … our
planet’s history. It is a human construct, created to help us make
sense of the world we find ourselves in.”Lewis and Maslin (2018), 64
As the former, its results need to be empirically validated; but because it is also the latter, it needs to be conceptually articulated and critically assessed, exposing ideology and bias.
An example for
Ideology shaping
geological theory is the definition the largest units used to divide up
the Earth’s deep history, the Eons: Hadean (“hellish”), Archean
(“beginning”), Proterozoic (“early life”), and Phanerozoic (”visible
life”). Their naming and spacing betray a “mix of Christianity and
Enlightenment ideas of progress”.ibid., 61
This ideological background can and must be articulated and
criticised
from a First-Person
Perspective, but it can also be explained from a Third-Person
Perspective, using the availability of certain types of evidence
(fossils of marine animals) and our specific perspective as humans as
the explanans.ibid., 62
References
- Lewis and Maslin (2018): The Human Planet: How We Created the Anthropocene