James Hutton: The Genius of Time

K1 - A first edition (First published 2022 stated) hardcover book SIGNED by Ray Perman on the title page in very good condition in very good dust jacket. Dust jacket has some wrinkling on the edges and corners, dust jacket and book have some some bumped corners, wrinkling on the spine edges, wrinkled on the bottom spine and back bottom gutter, light tanning and shelf wear. 9.5"x6.25", 290 pages. Satisfaction Guaranteed. James Hutton was a Scottish geologist, agriculturalist, chemical manufacturer, naturalist and physician. Often referred to as the "Father of Modern Geology," he played a key role in establishing geology as a modern science. Hutton advanced the idea that the physical world's remote history can be inferred from evidence in present-day rocks. Through his study of features in the landscape and coastlines of his native Scottish Lowlands, such as Salisbury Crags or Siccar Point, he developed the theory that geological features could not be static but underwent continuing transformation over indefinitely long periods of time. From this he argued, in agreement with many other early geologists, that the Earth could not be young. He was one of the earliest proponents of what in the 1830s became known as uniformitarianism, the science which explains features of the Earth's crust as the outcome of continuing natural processes over the long geologic time scale. Hutton also put forward a thesis for a 'system of the habitable Earth' proposed as a deistic mechanism designed to keep the world eternally suitable for humans, an early attempt to formulate what today might be called one kind of anthropic principle. Some reflections similar to those of Hutton can be found in publications of his contemporaries, such as the French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon, but it is chiefly Hutton's pioneering work that established the field. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.…