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Summary: unearths a forgotten heroic scientific giant
Review: This books makes a powerfully convincing case that James Hutton was a revolutionary scientist who literally gave us our modern conception of the world. The planet earth is over 4 billion years old and it is Hutton who first rigorously refuted the dogma that the world was created a mere 6,000 years ago. More importantly, he saw that currently active physical processes were responsible for the world's present shape and history, that these processes acted slowly but over vast periods of time. To understand our world is to see it as James Hutton did.Repcheck beautifully presents the social context in which Hutton lived, with a lively and fascinating account of the Scottish Enlightenment and Hutton's relations with the leading figures of his day, a remarkable period of human intellectual development. The social history is the greatest strength of the book. But one also walks away with an appreciation for the enormity of Hutton's contribution and a great fondness for this loveable and remarkable man.
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Summary: A masterful account of how our thinking changed
Review: Who now believes that in about a year's time, at noon on Oct. 23, 2004, the whole world will celebrate the six-thousandth anniversary of the creation of the Earth? No? Well, 200 years ago almost every Christian on the planet believed that to be a fact with the same assurance they had in their belief in Jesus Christ and the rest of Christian theology. The precise date and time had been announced in 1650 with the publication of "Annals of the Oled Testament" by James Ussher, archbishop of Armaugh, Ireland. For generations, every copy of the King James edition of the Bible included Bishop Ussher's dates in the margins. Educated people now believe the world was created about 4.6 billion years ago, and the universe is about 15 billion years old. Those figures are based on exacting scientific analysis, which anyone with access to a space shuttle, nuclear laboratory or radio telescope can verify. Bishop Ussher, not having access to such scientific equipment, based his Oct. 23, 4004 BC date for the creation of the Earth on the Christian bible. So, in 1788 and without access to modern scientific equipment, how did James Hutton challenge the accepted reasoning of the entire scientific and religious establishment to prove the world is billions of years old? This book is a first-rate account of how it happened. Hutton, by literally inventing the modern science of geology, became one of the handful of men who created the modern world. He lived in Edinburgh at the same time as David Hume, Adam Smith, Erasmus Darwin and the other leading figures of the Scottish Enlightenment. Together, this handful of brilliant men, working and thinking in a community that valued education and new ideas, launched a revolution in scientific thought that continues to this day. One scientist outside the Edinburgh group who communicated regularly with them was Benjamin Franklin, the American statesman, polymath and genius who discovered electricity and a wealth of otrher now common natural phenomena. Adam Smith, another one of the group, literally invented the economic foundation of modern society. In 1788, while the US Constitution was in the process of ratification, Hutton published his 95-page document in which he explained the world was created long before Oct. 23, 4004 BC. He based his work on rigid science, not on tradition or religious orthodoxy. It was a bold leap into the future. He was a major player in what became an extraordinary breakthrough in scientific reasoning, just as the US Constitution was a breakthrough in the manner by which people govern themselves. All were based on the same principle, the first-hand observation of events rather than relying on ancient theories or religious dogma. These were men who believed in the future, not in being bound by the unchanging chains of the past. Repchck does a masterful job of tying these elements together, not merely Hutton and his observations and work, but the intellectual habits and social habits of the era. He explains how and why Edinburgh became the intellectual capital of the world for at least two generations, during the time Hutton developed his ideas. When you think of how completely our whole way of thinking has changed in less than 200 years, the impact of a handful of scientists such as Hutton may well be the greatest intellectual advancement of mankind since the days of the Greek philosophers. To sum up, this is a wonderful book. Hutton was the ideal of the perfect scientist, and Repcheck not only understands the man but the social climate in which he developed his ideas. Biographies usually talk only of the person, histories only of events; this book outlines with eloquent clarity how a variety of seemingly unrelated events came together in one place at one time in the mind of one man to utterly change our world. Today, we should be so fortunate!
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