Howard Carlton

Condensing from a fluid haze:
John Pringle Nichol, the nebular hypothesis and nineteenth-century cosmogony

Abstract

A significant astronomical debate of the mid-nineteenth century revolved around competing hypotheses of cosmogony. Traditional explanations held that God had created a static cosmos nearly six thousand years ago. Two credible astronomers, however, had begun to believe that traces of the developmental processes which led to the birth of stars and planets still persisted in the form of the unresolvable nebulae. An evolutionary cosmogony seemed to sit well with emergent long geological timescales and therefore proved attractive to those thinkers who were not persuaded of the correctness of Mosaic chronology and traditional creation stories.

A key figure in this debate was the Scottish political economist and radical polemicist John Pringle Nichol (1804-1859) who was a proponent of what had come to be known as the ‘nebular hypothesis’. He was opposed by astronomers and theologians of a more conservative religious and political mien, for whom an evolving universe conflicted with their belief in final causes and also threatened to undermine social stability. Some commentators believed that the claimed resolution of the Orion nebula by Lord Rosse’s giant telescope in the mid-1840s had destroyed Nichol’s argument for ongoing stellar development. This paper will show how Nichol repurposed the evidence produced by his opponents and proceeded to promote his alternative views to a generally receptive audience. He thus paved the way for an absolute expansion of universal time and distance, the acceptability of evolution and a general move towards rationalist religious views during the later nineteenth century.

Biography

Having spent a number of years as an IT Consultant, Howard Carlton has recently moved into the rather different world of academia. In 2013 he was awarded an MA in the History of Christianity by the University of Birmingham and he is currently studying for a PhD in Modern History at the same institution. His thesis will explore a number of nineteenth-century astronomical controversies in order to examine the relationship between the respective epistemological statuses of religion, metaphysics and science. It will also consider the development of the discipline of astronomy during the nineteenth century and reflect on the extent to which it influenced, and was influenced by, the changing cultural, educational, social and political contexts of Victorian society.