The Origins of a New Science of Geology
{'Code': '08080301', 'Directorate': {'Abbreviation': 'BIO', 'LongName': 'Direct For Biological Sciences'}, 'Division': {'Abbreviation': 'DBI', 'LongName': 'Div Of Biological Infrastructure'}}
{'SignBlockName': 'Ronald J. Overmann', 'PO_EMAI': None, 'PO_PHON': None}
Geology, unlike astronomy, physics, or geometry, is of relatively               recent origins as a science.  It cannot trace its history back                  to ancient times.  Clearly, thinkers in antiquity and medieval                  times observed and offered explanations for certain terrestrial                 phenomena, but geology came into being only in the wake of the                  great intellectual transformations of the 17th and 18th                         centuries.  The ingredients of a specifically geological                        perspective -- e.g., a view of the earth not as a cosmic region                 but as an object; a historical outlook on nature, and ideas on                  how to decipher the earth's superficial parts historically;                     conviction that the earth's constituents are governed by                        processes reducible to general understanding -- were gradually                  assembled over the course of a century and a half, before the                   spectacular success of geological science became evident in the                 first part of the 19th century leading up to the work of Charles                Darwin.                                                                         Dr. Taylor is investigating the early development of geological                 science by focussing on the historical role of natural law as a                 model for scientific investigation and explanation in the                       thought of a group of 18th century naturalists.   By assessing                  the importance ascribed by a selection of French scientists                     during the middle and later decades of the 18th century to                      recognition of law-like regularities in their efforts to                        establish a science of the earth, Dr. Taylor hopes to contribute                to the historical recovery of the cultural framework of geology's               origins.  He will examine this groups scientific works and their                use of empirical generalizations in scientific argument.  Dr.                   Taylor argues that the Enlightenment's emphasis upon reduction                  of phenomena to empirical rule was manifested in the ways                       geological concepts were formualted in the 18th century, as                     well as in the ways early geologists began to conduct fieldwork                 and to devise methods for graphic representation of phenomena                   they thought significant.  These studies by Dr. Taylor promise to               greatly enhance our understanding of the origins of the science                 of geology.
{'FirstName': 'Kenneth', 'LastName': 'Taylor', 'PI_MID_INIT': 'L', 'PI_SUFX_NAME': None, 'PI_FULL_NAME': 'Kenneth L Taylor', 'EmailAddress': None, 'NSF_ID': '000464661', 'StartDate': '03/01/1988', 'EndDate': None, 'RoleCode': 'Principal Investigator'}
{'Name': 'University of Oklahoma Norman Campus', 'CityName': 'NORMAN', 'ZipCode': '730193003', 'PhoneNumber': '4053254757', 'StreetAddress': '660 PARRINGTON OVAL RM 301', 'StreetAddress2': None, 'CountryName': 'United States', 'StateName': 'Oklahoma', 'StateCode': 'OK', 'CONGRESSDISTRICT': '04', 'CONGRESS_DISTRICT_ORG': 'OK04', 'ORG_UEI_NUM': 'EVTSTTLCEWS5', 'ORG_LGL_BUS_NAME': 'UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA', 'ORG_PRNT_UEI_NUM': None}
{'Name': None, 'CityName': None, 'StateCode': None, 'ZipCode': None, 'StreetAddress': None, 'CountryCode': None, 'CountryName': None, 'StateName': None, 'CountryFlag': None, 'CONGRESSDISTRICT': None, 'CONGRESS_DISTRICT_PERF': '""'}
{'Code': '1353', 'Text': 'Hist & Philosophy of SET'}
{'url': 'https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/download?DownloadFileName=1987&All=true', 'xml': '8719713.xml'}