The assumption that the same natural laws and processes that operate in the present have always operated in the past and apply everywhere in the universe. James Hutton proposed it in 1785, and Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology carried it to a wide readership from 1830, replacing catastrophist explanations of Earth's history with the patient accumulation of ordinary processes over deep time. It is the working assumption underneath most of modern geology. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Origin YearJames Hutton proposed the concept in his 1785 Theory of the Earth; Charles Lyell popularized it from 1830. Connections
Critiqued Here
Catastrophism, Concepts Catastrophism contrasts with uniformitarianism; since their 19th century disputes the consensus accepts some catastrophic events as extreme examples of explicable natural processes.
Source Catastrophism (Wikipedia)
Associated With
Charles Lyell's uniformitarianism absorbed plutonism as one of its founding pillars.
Source Plutonism (Wikipedia)
In Discipline
Source Uniformitarianism (Wikipedia)
Proposed By
Source Uniformitarianism (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Uniformitarianism (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationLead sectionQuote, Lead section
the present is the key to the past
Plutonism (Wikipedia)
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