>>12696887Different subject, but I recently read Factors of Soil Formation, by Hans Jenny. It's reasonably well known amongst soil scientists, and is considered to be the equivalent of On the Origin of Species for pedology
Essentially at the turn of the century soil scientists were obssessed with trying to create universal soil classifications. The book is an intervention by the author to show how a quantitative approach to the *process* of soil formation helps give a practical understanding of the resulting soil than a purely categorizational approach.
Even if you're not interested in pedology I think anyone interested in model building should at least read the first two chapters. They're pretty accessible even if you're not familiar with the topic, and they're such a beautiful articulation of scientific deduction and inference. The subsequent chapters are mostly descriptions of various soil series the author uses to illustrate their point, some of which are out of date. But if you're interested in scientifici philosophy and process I can't recommend it enough
