Geologic Time: A Semiotic Probing

Time is a continuum and is real, according to Peircean theory. It is also the constitutive category of geology that is equivalent to the Peircean category of Thirdness. As a continuum, time was created and evolved. Although the conceptions of a linear and a cyclic time played a role in the development of geological science, they were not deduced from geological observations; they were a priori assumptions. Hence, time is a methodological device. Continuity, for Peirce, exists on evolutionary terms. Chance or Firstness is always present in every phenomenon. So, time is continual rather then continuous, a continuum where new possibilities of development can be added, by the action of Chance or Firstness. The notion of cycle in geologic time should be reviewed. For Peirce real time is multiply- or n-tracked. Real time is open to firstness. According to this, geologic time is the vestige, a great vestige, of the fixed and definite track which, within the n-possibilities of development, the planet evolved, incorporating changes produced by chance.