Darwin-L Message Log 1:150 (September 1993)

Academic Discussion on the History and Theory of the Historical Sciences

This is one message from the Archives of Darwin-L (1993–1997), a professional discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.

Note: Additional publications on evolution and the historical sciences by the Darwin-L list owner are available on SSRN.

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<1:150>From sullivan@platte.unk.edu  Thu Sep 16 14:38:09 1993

Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1993 14:29:33 -0500
From: sullivan@platte.unk.edu
To: Darwin-L@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Nemesis

>From Dale Sullivan

I have a request.  I would like to sample opinion of the subscribers
to L-Darwin on the question of extraterrestrial causes of mass
extinctions.  I'm not in the field myself; instead, I'm a rhetorician
who has been studying the rhetoric of science for about five years.
Last year I wrote a paper on two of David Raup's articles, one appearing
before the Alvarez, et. al., article in _Science_  June 1980 (you'll
recall that article hypothesized an extraterrestrial cause of
mass extinctions because of an iridium anomaly) and one appearing
after that article.  I want to return to that issue in the coming
months, but I would like to know how firmly established the theory
of extraterrestrial causes is.  I hope this request will convince
some of you to quit lurking long enough to explain what you think on
this subjet, what theory you presently hold, and how convinced you
are of it.  You might say this is an attempt to see the evolution of
an idea by digging into the strata of opinion in September 1993.

sullivan@platte.unk.edu

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