Author Archives: dublinsoil

About dublinsoil

Professor of Environmental Science

Civilization and its contents: how the world’s earliest cities manifest Neolithic carnal excesses

Posted on August 6, 2011

Being primarily a note on V Gordon Childe ( (1892 – 1957) and the definition of civilization. “Libraries”, Foucault said, “are the habitat of Man.”  I was in a university library when I read this.  It was the Arts library … Continue reading →

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The Social Ladder and the Ecological Ground – Julian Steward and multilinear evolution in the middle 20th C

Posted on July 29, 2011

The urban experience is a relatively new one for us.   The oldest cities emerged from 5000-3500 BC, slowly evolving out of antecedent Neolithic villages and settlements throughout the world, some of which date back as far as 10,000 BC.  George … Continue reading →

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Brain, liquefaction of

Posted on July 25, 2011

The following is an excerpt from my unpublished manuscript “A Shorter History of Bodily Fluids” B.  Brain, liquefaction of: also known as encephalomalacia (from the Greek, μαλακία softening), necrencephalus (from Greek, νεκρο + κεϕαλή  deadhead), ramollissement cérébral (from the French … Continue reading →

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In Luster Diminished: Writing Kant out of the Philosophy of Science

Posted on July 24, 2011

In the introductory chapter of his helpful Introduction to Phenomenology Robert Sokolowski reports on the genesis of his book project in a lunchtime conversation with a professor of mathematics and philosophy who reported on the following significant difference between mathematicians … Continue reading →

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Nothing sucks seeds like succession: how a 17th Century Irish Archbishop invented modern ecology

Posted on July 15, 2011

If one could choose from among the several notable Irish William Kings who might possibly serve as first recorder of a hypothesis on the development of bog vegetation you might choose wrongly.  The three candidates: William King soldier and politician, … Continue reading →

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Quaking bogs and other Shaky Ground: some thoughts on the history of phytosociology

Posted on July 13, 2011

In the early 1980s I volunteered to work in Killarney National Park in Ireland on a project to rid the oak woodlands of Rhododendron ponticum, an invasive shrub that was encroaching in the understory of this habitat.  The concern was … Continue reading →

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The God of Disruption – an Ecological History of Creation

Posted on July 13, 2011

In the beginning was the disturbance: God disrupted the pristine formlessness of the deep and created the heavens and the earth.  Literally in a flash.  With His utterance, the darkness was relegated to Night; the light He called Day.  Waters … Continue reading →

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Kant’s body and other natural disasters

Posted on July 9, 2011

This post is part of a series of occasional posts concerning the body and ecology.  I start somewhat circuitously by examining the body in the work of Kant. Friedrich Nietzsche, in tones braggadocio, prefaced his intellectual autobiography, Ecce Homo: How … Continue reading →

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History of the Ecosystem Concept, 76 years old this month

Posted on July 8, 2011

I have been blogging this past week about the ecosystem concept.  The term was introduced by Arthur Tansley 76 years ago this month in a paper entitled “The use and abuse of vegetation concepts and terms” in the journal Ecology. … Continue reading →

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