Article ID: CBB001320280

Systems and How Linnaeus Looked at Them in Retrospect (2013)

unapi

A famous debate between John Ray, Joseph Pitton de Tournefort and Augustus Quirinus Rivinus at the end of the seventeenth century has often been referred to as signalling the beginning of a rift between classificatory methods relying on logical division and classificatory methods relying on empirical grouping. Interestingly, a couple of decades later, Linnaeus showed very little excitement in reviewing this debate, and this although he was the first to introduce the terminological distinction of artificial vs. natural methods. In this paper, I will explain Linnaeus's indifference by the fact that earlier debates were revolving around problems of plant diagnosis rather than classification. From Linnaeus's perspective, they were therefore concerned with what he called artificial methods alone -- diagnostic tools, that is, which were artificial no matter which characters were taken into account. The natural method Linnaeus proposed, on the other hand, was not about diagnosis, but about relations of equivalence which played a vital, although largely implicit role in the practices of specimen exchange on which naturalists relied to acquire knowledge of the natural world.

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Article Smith, Justin E. H.; Delbourgo, James (2013) In Kind: Species of Exchange in Early Modern Science. Annals of Science: The History of Science and Technology (p. 299). unapi

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Authors & Contributors
Müller-Wille, Staffan
Jonsell, Bengt
Drouin, Jean-Marc
Veuille, Michel
Toma, Constantin
Sjöberg, Cajsa
Concepts
Botany
Classification in biology
Biology
Systematic botany
Terminology and nomenclature
Biographies
Time Periods
18th century
19th century
17th century
Places
Sweden
France
Great Britain
Romania
Europe
China
Institutions
Lund. Universitet
Uppsala Universitet
Linnean Society of London
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