Philosophical Thoughts On The Relationship Between Geological Revolution And Geology Evolution

Through hundreds of years, the generation and transformation of geoscience whichcomes to this day after experiencing several revolutionary changes have proved the generalprocess of the development of natural science. It has history, yet seems to be no history. Theresponse to this question is an explanation to geology itself as well as the development modeof general science. Historical accumulation and fractured revolution are always outstandingquestions; structuralism (synchronicity) and teleology (diachronism) inspire us a lot but stillseem dissatisfaction. The emphasis to some aspect of synchronicity and diachronism is aresult of the in-depth study made by the natural and science philosophy in20th century to theabove problems. It makes the problem become more clearly, but unfortunately, it seems hardto achieve a consensus. If the emergence of philosophical hermeneutic creates the conditionfor the reasonable understanding of the humanities, the same goal for philosophy of science isfar from realization. Because of the essential difference between natural science andhumanities, the philosophy of science which understands the existence of science itself andchange reasonably has not and never given up pursuing the universality and certainty.On this basis, this paper discusses the relationship between geoscience revolution andgeology evolution through a significant theoretical progress in geology field——thegeneration and development of plate tectonic theory, aiming at discover philosophyfoundation and realistic enlightenment of geoscience revolution and geology evolution. Theintroduction contains the background of this topic, research status, ideas, methods,significance and so on. The first chapter reviews the history of plate tectonics generation,makes phase classifications to geologic history and analyzes its concept, theory progress aswell as symbolic achievements. The second chapter analyzes the boundary conditions of thegeneration of plate tectonics and its development through three angles which are conditions ofsocial history, relevant basic theories and technological progress. The third chapter discussesthe characteristics of the plate tectonics’ revolutionary status which include three aspects: thetheory leads the transformation of geoscience concept; promotes the development ofgeological understanding; reflects the way of geoscience revolution. The fourth chapter makesthe basic analysis of the philosophy of science concerning the relationship between the geoscience revolution and geology evolution, discusses the understanding of geology torevolution and evolution and embodies the rationality of scientific development thought aswell as the enlightenment that the geology brings to the philosophy of science.According to the framework of “historical review—condition analysis—characteristicsanalysis—philosophical thinking”this paper makes a comprehensive study to the relationshipof revolution and evolution which is reflected in the plate tectonic theory, and throughthinking about the science revolution and evolution to get in-depth understanding to therelationship between objective development of geology evolution and its reasonabledevelopment of revolution, thus studies the enlightenments that the geology case made to theview of science from the philosophy perspective.