Abstract
I review the book “Making Prehistory: Historical Science and the Scientific Realism Debate” by Derek Turner. Turner suggests that philsophers should take seriously the historical sciences such as geology when considering philosophy of science issues. To that end, he explores the scientific realism debate with the historical sciences in mind. His conclusion is a view allied to that of Arthur Fine: a view Turner calls the natural historical attitude. While I find Turner’s motivations good, I find his characterisation of the historical sciences unconvincing. I say why in a section at the end of the review. The result is that I am unpersuaded by his thesis.
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Notes
As a crude proxy for just how neglected geology is, take the following measure: the number of mentions in two prominent philosophy of science journals. In the journal Philosophy of Science over the 10 years from 1998 to 2008, Physics was mentioned 322 times, Biology 251 times, Chemistry 81, and Geology a mere 17 times. In the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science: physics 212, Biology 99, Chemistry 28, and Geology 6 times.
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Jeffares, B. Guessing the future of the past. Biol Philos 25, 125–142 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-009-9155-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-009-9155-0