Introduction: A scientific-philosophical view of methodology

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the science of diagenesis. It discusses (1) the categories of research, (2) interrelationships of geology–geochemistry–geophysics, (3) geochemical–mineralogical systems, (4) some laboratory-based investigations, (5) interconnections between methodologies and some natural variables, and (6) logic–validity–ambiguity–soundness–assumptions–informal fallacies as part of the scientific method. There are two categories of research—namely, pure and applied, with the latter divisible into four sub-groups: problem-oriented, goal-oriented, developmental, and operational. Diagenetic studies fall into all five categories. These five research types are not isolated from each other but are complexly interrelated. The studies of diagenesis–catagenesis–metamorphism cover the whole continuum from the top to approximately the center of the continuum—that is, from the most reliable/exact/precise to the intermediate disciplines. Consequently, diagenesis encompasses several investigatory fields ranging in accuracy and reliability from the highest to a much lower level.