Field evidence in the earth sciences

Abstract

In recent centuries much effort within the earth sciences has been deployed in studying the earth's rocks and landforms in an effort to reconstruct the history of the earth's surface. In making the field-observations upon which our histories are based, however, the earth-scientist has to employ a fallible human mind which received highly subjective impulses through sets of filters which are broadly of social origin. What the earth-scientist observes is affected by pre-conceived hypotheses and theories, and by sociological factors such as the type of research that society is prepared to finance and the type of data in fashion within the scientific community at any given time. There is also the possibility that a few unscrupulous earth-scientists may be more concerned with the advancement of their own careers than with the decipherment of true earth-history and they may be tempted to manipulate the field-evidence in order to achieve their desired objectives.