Actualism and Uniformitarianism: From Abstract Commitments to Forms of Practice

Abstract

In “The Role of Historical Science in Methodological Actualism,” Meghan Page makes a number of important points about the sciences of geohistory. Yet the force of her arguments is blunted by her decision to explicate concepts like “actualism” and “uniformitarianism” as abstract methodological commitments. In this discussion note, I illustrate the difficulties that arise from this decision, and suggest a way of avoiding them that preserves Page’s main conclusions.