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Article ID: CBB000932267

“The Unity of the Generative Power”: Modern Taxonomy and the Problem of Animal Generation (2009)

Smith, Justin E. H. (Author)

Perspectives on Science
Volume: 17
Pages: 78--104

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Biology Classification in biology Biogenesis; origin of life; spontaneous generation Zoology 17th century 18th century Enlightenment 16th century

Much recent scholarly treatment of the theoretical and practical underpinnings of biological taxonomy from the 16th to the 18th centuries has failed to adequately consider the importance of the mode of generation of some living entity in the determination of its species membership, as well as in the determination of the ontological profile of the species itself. In this article, I show how a unique set of considerations was brought to bear in the classification of creatures whose species membership was thought to be entirely determined by descent from parents of the same kind, in contrast with creatures whose generation could proceed spontaneously or through budding. Concretely, the relevance of mode of generation to the practice of taxonomy means that we must rethink the role of the early modern botanists in the development of a universal science of applied taxonomy. I argue that the task of classifying `higher' biological kinds---those united, in Kant's language, through their generative power---is one with its unique set of problems, arising as much from classical anthropology as from natural philosophy, and that the conception of zoological species that emerged in the early modern period was a consequence of these problems, and not primarily of the `applied metaphysics' of classificatory practice.

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