Abstract I engage the philosophy of geology, and the philosophy of planetary geomorphology in particular, offering a perspective from the standpoint of a Mars geographer who is acquainted with both experimental and social research. I discuss the nature of geological reasoning and probe its somewhat paradoxical commitment to both a physical realism and to interpretative narrative construction, engaging particularly with how the interplay of these two factors are addressed in the works of the philosopher-geologist Victor Baker. I also draw attention to specific characteristics of knowledge construction in Martian geomorphology which systemically limit the attachment of our inferences to a physical reality. For instance I highlight a geospatial-geochemical dimorphism in the semantic content of available planetary data and several non-scientific controls on the knowledge construction process, including mission safety constraints and sociopolitical factors. Lastly, I find that physical geography has grown apart from planetary geomorphology in the decades since planetary geomorphology assumed its largely geological modern form. An academic siloing effect has followed suit. An immediate implication is that this contours the typical pathways of knowledge construction in our discipline, and I try to call attention to a few examples of this effect. As an effort to bridge this gap, I highlight the recent developments of the physical geographical subdisciplines of GIScience and critical physical geography. These disciplines offer opportunities for insight which might be fruitful for planetary geomorphologists, but their lines of inquiry have largely passed beneath our community’s radar. Specifically, in offering examples of what discourse in a critical planetary geology might look like, I hope to encourage the informal philosophical discussions already circulating in our community to pass into a formal space of debate.

中文翻译：

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行星地貌推断中的物理现实和关键行星地质学的途径

摘要：我涉及地质学哲学，特别是行星地貌学哲学，从熟悉实验和社会研究的火星地理学家的角度提供了一个视角。我讨论了地质推理的本质，并探讨了它对物理现实主义和解释性叙事建构的有些矛盾的承诺，特别是在哲学家兼地质学家维克多·贝克的作品中如何处理这两个因素的相互作用。我还提请注意火星地貌学知识构建的具体特征，这些特征系统地限制了我们的推论与物理现实的联系。例如，我强调了可用行星数据的语义内容中的地理空间-地球化学二态性以及对知识构建过程的一些非科学控制，包括任务安全限制和社会政治因素。最后，我发现，自从行星地貌学呈现其主要地质现代形式以来的几十年里，自然地理学已经与行星地貌学分开了。学术孤岛效应也随之而来。直接的含义是，这勾画出了我们学科中知识构建的典型路径，我试图提请人们注意这种效应的几个例子。为了弥补这一差距，我重点介绍了地理信息科学和批判自然地理学的自然地理分支学科的最新发展。这些学科提供了洞察力的机会，这对于行星地貌学家来说可能是富有成效的，但他们的调查路线基本上没有被我们社区注意到。具体来说，在提供批判性行星地质学中的话语可能是什么样子的例子时，我希望鼓励我们社区中已经流传的非正式哲学讨论进入正式的辩论空间。