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The Making of Paleontological Time

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Time of Nature and the Nature of Time

Part of the book series: Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science ((BSPS,volume 326))

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Abstract

Usually, the notion of time shared by paleontologists is an arrow. Hence, time is a synonym of duration, either when discussing questions relevant to one thousand years or to a billion years. Geological time, or “deep time”, is a simple concept. This concept of time has been built from lithology and from the study of faunas and floras inside these lithologic layers, or, differently said, from fossils. Stratigraphy, as a science, rests on lithology and fossils. Modern methods which produce radiometric dates (absolute ages) confirmed two centuries of stratigraphers’observations and speculations. Nevertheless, comparison of the linear time of geology and the branching time of living beings is a source of severe difficulties. Although they seem familiar, the relationships between life and time, between differentiation and duration, or between evolution and chronology are rather complex. Time and fossils are less secure allies than usually thought. The deployment of living beings in the temporal dimension creates multiple parallel durations and independent developments. Hence, the historical reading of the tree of life and the interpretation of geological time are not immediate. The notions of hierarchical time and of temporal paralogy developed in this paper, demonstrate these difficulties, often underestimated.

Time passes slowly up here in the daylight We stare straight ahead and try so hard to stay right

(Bob Dylan, Time passes slowly)

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Notes

  1. 1.

    “Homology” here is to be understood as similarity due to resemblance.

  2. 2.

    “Homology” here is to be understood as similarity due to ancestry .

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Acknowledgements

I thank Christophe Bouton and Philippe Huneman for their invitation to participate in this volume. This article is derived from a presentation given on the 27th of September 2012 at the conference “The Time of Nature, the Nature of Time” organized by C. Bouton, Ph. Huneman and P. Duris, in Bordeaux, France. A former version of the manuscript benefited from René Zaragüeta’s criticisms and suggestions. Two careful reviewers helped greatly to improve the text. I greatly appreciated the artistic help of Alexandre Lethiers and Sophie Fernandez. I am also grateful to Andrew McFarland for a thorough language check of the manuscript.

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  1. Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France

    Pascal Tassy

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  1. Pascal Tassy
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Correspondence to Pascal Tassy .

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  1. Département de Philosophie/SPH, UFR Humanités, Université Bordeaux Montaigne, Pessac Cedex, France

    Christophe Bouton

  2. Institut d’Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences et des Techniques (IHPST), CNRS/Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France

    Philippe Huneman

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Tassy, P. (2017). The Making of Paleontological Time. In: Bouton, C., Huneman, P. (eds) Time of Nature and the Nature of Time. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, vol 326. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53725-2_12

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