The principle that natural forces operate identically at all times and places.
Comment:For example, under uniformitarianism one does not assume that the law of gravity was different in 400 BC, or that π had a different value eighteen million years ago.
Self-conscious uniformitarianism first became salient in western thinking in the field of geology. It was proposed by James Hutton in 1785 and came to be known as "Huttonian theory." Hutton argued that the geological past should be understood as the result of the same kinds of forces seen at work in the present. This was also forcefully argued by Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875), a geologist who demonstrated the great age of the earth by a detailed explanation of its geology based on known, modern, processes.
The idea influenced writers describing the world of living things, and Charles Darwin obviously subscribed to it, although of course the processes involved were different from those in geology.
A challenge to uniformitarianism in the study of culture and human behavior comes in deciding what is or is not an unchanging process. The idea of geological erosion is obvious (to us). But should a mother's love for her child be similarly regarded, or must it be interpreted as a result, at least in part, of a cultural tradition, or of personality characteristics? Is the famous Oedipus complex, properly understood, a human universal? Does power inevitably corrupt? And so on.
Some social scientists prefer to confine their analysis to webs of forces operative in specific cases. This has usually been true in cultural anthropology.
Perhaps the most prominent form of uniformitarianism in contemporary social science is "game theory" and associated "rational choice theory," which have been elaborated especially in the field of Political Science.
Definition Revised: 2008-10-20
Script Last Modified: 2025-02-04
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