Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T18:20:56.093Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

What Is at Stake in the Formalization of a Chronostratigraphic Unit? A Case Study on the Anthropocene

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2022

Hernán Bobadilla Open the ORCID record for Hernán Bobadilla [Opens in a new window]
Hernán Bobadilla*
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The prospective formalization of the Anthropocene as a chronostratigraphic unit by the International Commission on Stratigraphy has been intensely debated. This paper explores and assesses the stakes of this process from a philosophical perspective. I distinguish two senses of formalization—the descriptive and the evaluative—and argue that: 1) there are descriptive and evaluative formalizations of the Anthropocene beyond the confines of the ICS; 2) incoherencies between Anthropocene proposals and the ICS’s current tenets are not a decisive reason for deferring descriptive formalization; and 3) the prospective evaluative formalization of the Anthropocene by the ICS would be impactful.

Type
Symposia Paper
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 89 , Issue 5 , December 2022 , pp. 1024 - 1033
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Crutzen, Paul, and Stoermer, Eugene. 2000. “The “Anthropocene”” Global Change Newsletter 41:17–18.Google Scholar
Google Scholar. n.d. “Anthropocene.” Accessed February 15, 2022. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C33&q=anthropocene&btnG= Google Scholar
International Commission on Stratigraphy. “Stratigraphic Guide.” Accessed September 13, 2021. https://stratigraphy.org/guide/intr Google Scholar
IPCC. 2021. “Summary for Policymakers.” In: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, edited by Masson-Delmotte, V., Zhai, P., Pirani, A., Connors, S. L., Péan, C., Berger, S., Caud, N., Chen, Y., Goldfarb, L., Gomis, M. I., and Zhou, B.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Latour, Bruno. 2004. Politics of Nature. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.10.4159/9780674039964CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, Simon, and Maslin, Mark. 2015. “Defining the Anthropocene.” Nature 519:171–80.10.1038/nature14258CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lucas, Spencer. 2018. “The GSSP Method of Chronostratigraphy: A Critical Review.” Frontiers in Earth Science 6:1–18, 191.10.3389/feart.2018.00191CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merriam-Webster.com. n.d. “Formalize.” Accessed July 21, 2021. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/formalize Google Scholar
Murphy, Michael, and Salvador, Amos. 1999. “International Stratigraphic Guide – An Abridged Version.” Episodes 22 (4):255–72.10.18814/epiiugs/1999/v22i4/002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nature. 2011. “The Human Epoch.” Nature 473:254.10.1038/473254aCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oreskes, Naomi. 2019. Why Trust Science? Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Santana, Carlos. 2019. “Waiting for the Anthropocene.” The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 70:1073–96.10.1093/bjps/axy022CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy. “Working Group on the Anthropocene.” Accessed September 11, 2021. http://quaternary.stratigraphy.org/working-groups/anthropocene/ Google Scholar
Suppes, Patrick. 1968. “The Desirability of Formalization in Science.” The Journal of Philosophy 65 (20):651–64.10.2307/2024318CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vidas, Davor, Zalasiewicz, Jan, Steffen, Will, Hancock, Trevor, Barnosky, Anthony, Summerhayes, Colin, and Waters, Colin. 2019. “The Utility of Formalization of the Anthropocene for Science.” In The Anthropocene as a Geological Time Unit: A Guide to the Scientific Evidence and Current Debate, edited by Zalasiewicz, Jan, Waters, Colin, Williams, Mark, and Summerhayes, Colin, 31–40. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Waters, Colin, Zalasiewicz, Jan, Summerhayes, Colin, Barnosky, Anthony, Poirier, Clément, Gałuszka, Agnieszka, Cearreta, Alejandro, et al. 2016. “The Anthropocene is Functionally and Stratigraphically Distinct from the Holocene.” Science 351 (6269):aad2622(1-10).10.1126/science.aad2622CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zalasiewicz, Jan, Waters, Colin, Williams, Mark, Summerhayes, Colin, Head, Martin, and Leinfelder, Reinhold. 2019. “A General Introduction to the Anthropocene.” In The Anthropocene as a Geological Time Unit: A Guide to the Scientific Evidence and Current Debate, edited by Zalasiewicz, Jan, Waters, Colin, Williams, Mark, and Summerhayes, Colin, 2–4. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/9781108621359CrossRefGoogle Scholar