Uniformitarianism meaning

yo͝o'nə-fôr'mĭ-târ'ē-ə-nĭz'əm
The doctrine that all geologic changes may be explained by existing physical and chemical processes, as erosion, deposition, volcanic action, etc., that have operated in essentially the same way throughout geologic time.
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The theory that all geologic phenomena may be explained as the result of existing forces having operated uniformly from the origin of the earth to the present time.
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(chiefly geology) The scientific principle that natural processes operated in the past in the same way that they operate today. [from 19th c.]
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The theory that all geologic phenomena may be explained as the result of existing forces having operated uniformly from the origin of the Earth to the present time.
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Origin of uniformitarianism

From uniformitarian +"Ž -ism.

Sentence Examples

  • He thus exerted a potent influence on palaeontology through his persistent advocacy of uniformitarianism, a doctrine with which Lamarck should also be credited.

  • And we will not succumb to the absolutely foolish, ridiculous logic of evolutionary uniformitarianism.

  • His reactionary and retarding ideas as a special creationist and his advocacy of the cataclysmic theory of change exerted a baneful influence until overthrown by the uniformitarianism of James Hutton (1726-1797) and Charles Lyell (1797-1875) and the evolutionism of Darwin.

  • As a natural philosopher he radically opposed Cuvier and was distinctly a precursor of uniformitarianism, advocating the hypothesis of slow changes and variations, both in living forms and in their environment.

  • The doctrine of Uniformitarianism, as propounded by Lyell, served to establish geology on a firmer and more rational basis than it had previously possessed; but latterly the tendency has been to modify the Lyellian view by an admission of the probability of a more intense action of groups of forces at certain stages of the earth's history.

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Words near uniformitarianism in the Dictionary