CATASTKOPHISM AND rXIIORMITARIANISM 9 



geologists this is noi so bad as it might sccin, because in })ractice 

 borderline cases are very limited in number and of no great impor- 

 tance. Practical application of the outline, even in its general form, 

 in most cases presents no difficulties. Difficulties arise, on the other 

 hand, if we try to narrow down our definitions. One might then 

 even arrive at a distinction without there being any difference. We 

 agree with Hooykaas, who in his text stresses the different aspects of 

 'uniformitarianism' and 'actualism', but in his glossary states that the 

 two words now are synonymous. 



I will use the two words as synonyms for this principle of a certain 

 continuity that nowadays underlies all geological philosophy, even if 

 not expressly stated. 



CATASTROPHISM AND UNIFORMITARIANISM 



As said before, notwithstanding the fact that they have not often been 

 well expressed, the doctrines of catastrophism and of uniformitarian- 

 ism are basic to geologic thought. Therefore, if we want to evaluate 

 the geologic picture of the early days of the earth in which life 

 originated, we must take note of their meaning in the study of 

 geology. Of the two, the doctrine of catastrophes is the earlier. It 

 has become replaced by uniformitarian lines of thinking largely 

 through the influence of two British geologists, Hutton (1726-1797) 

 and Lyell (1797-1875). 



According to the catastrophists, the successive states of the surface 

 of the earth discovered by geology for events from the past, are so 

 vastly different inter se and from the present, that only very large 

 catastrophes, suddenly occurring at some points in history, can be 

 the explanation. World-wide sudden inundations and volcanic up- 

 heavals were the main catastrophic events. We recognise, of course, 

 the biblical version of the deluge together with the volcanic catas- 

 trophe of Vesuvius, as described by Pliny the Younger; 18th and 19th 

 century required reading for any European intellectual. 



So what is more sensible than to assume similar catastrophes to 

 interpret geologic phenomena in the past? The erection of a moun- 

 tain chain then is nothing but a sudden catastrophic upheaval of the 

 earth. Sudden inundations of large parts of the continents were due 

 to floods comparable to the Deluge, and the extinction of a fossil 

 fauna was the result of some other, as yet unknown, fatal catastrophe. 



