Philosophia Botanica
Encyclopedia
Philosophia Botanica was published by the Swedish naturalist
and physician
Carolus Linnaeus
(1707–1778) who greatly influenced the development of botanical taxonomy
and systematics
in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is "the first textbook of descriptive systematic botany and botanical Latin". It also contains Linnaeus's first published description of his binomial nomenclature
.
Philosophia Botanica represents a maturing of Linnaeus's thinking on botany and its theoretical foundations, being an elaboration of ideas first published in his Fundamenta Botanica
(1736) and Critica Botanica
(1737), and set out in a similar way as a series of stark and uncompromising principles (aphorismen). The book also establishes a basic botanical terminology.
The following principle §79 demonstrates the style of presentation and Linnaeus's method of introducing his ideas.
A detailed analysis of the work is given in Frans Stafleu's Linnaeus and the Linnaeans, pp. 25–78.
for its day, and by the 10th edition had reached over 3000 species. Linnaeus had learned plant names as short descriptive phrases (polynomials) known as nomina specifica. Each time a new species was described the diagnostic phrase-names had to be adjusted, and lists of names, especially those including synonyms (alternative names for the same plant) became extremely unwieldy. Linnaeus’s solution was to associate with the generic name an additional single word, what he termed the nomen triviale (which he first introduced in the Philosophia Botanica), to designate a species. Linnaeus emphasized that this was simply a matter of convenience, it was not to replace the diagnostic nomen specificum. But over time the nomen triviale became the “real” name and the nomen specificum became the Latin “diagnosis” that must, according to the rules of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, accompany the description of all new plant species: it was that part of the plant description distinguishing that particular species from all others. Linnaeus did not invent the binomial system but he was the person who provided the theoretical framework that lead to its universal acceptance. The second word of the binomial, the nomen triviale as Linnaeus called it, is now known as the specific epithet and the two words, the generic name and specific epithet together make up the species name. The binomial expresses both resemblance and difference at the same time — resemblance and relationship through the generic name: difference and distinctness through the specific epithet.
Until 1753 polynomials served two functions, to provide: a) a simple designation (label) b) a means of distinguishing that entity from others (diagnosis). Linnaeus's major achievement was not binomial nomenclature itself, but the separation of the designatory and diagnostic functions of names, the advantage of this being noted in Philosophia Botanica principle §257. He did this by linking species names to descriptions and the concepts of other botanists as expressed in their literature — all set within a structural framework of carefully drafted rules. In this he was an exemplary proponent of the general encyclopaedic and systematizing effort of the 18th century.
Systema Naturæ was Linnaeus’s early attempt to organise nature. The first edition was published in 1735 and in it he outlines his ideas for the hierarchical classification of the natural world (the “system of nature”) by dividing it into the animal kingdom
(Regnum animale), the plant kingdom (Regnum vegetabile) and the "mineral kingdom
" (Regnum lapideum) each of which he further divided into classes, orders, genera and species, with [generic] characters, [specific] differences, synonyms, and places of occurrence. The tenth edition of this book in 1758 has been adopted as the starting point for zoological nomenclature. The first edition of 1735 was just eleven pages long, but this expanded with further editions until the final thirteenth edition of 1767 had reached over 3000 pages.
In the early eighteenth century colonial expansion and exploration created a demand for the description of thousands of new organisms. This highlighted difficulties in communication about plants, the replication of descriptions, and the importance of an agreed way of presenting, publishing and applying plant names. From about 1730 when Linnaeus was in his early twenties and still in Uppsala, Sweden, he planned a listing all the genera and species of plants known to western science in his day. Before this could be achieved he needed to establish the principles of classification and nomenclature on which these works were to be based.
(1685–1760) a wealthy Anglo-Dutch merchant–banker with the Dutch East India Company
who had an impressive garden containing four large glasshouses that were filled with tropical and sub-tropical plants collected overseas. Linnaeus was enthralled by these collections and prepared a detailed systematic catalogue of the plants in the garden, which he published in 1738 as Hortus Cliffortianus
("in honour of Clifford's garden". It was during this exceptionally productive period of his life that he published the works that were to lay the foundations for biological nomenclature. These were Fundamenta Botanica
("Foundations of botany", 1736), Bibliotheca Botanica
("Botanical bibliography", 1736), and Critica Botanica ("Critique of botany", 1737) He soon put his theoretical ideas into practice in his Genera Plantarum
("Genera of plants", 1737), Flora Lapponica
("Flora of Lapland", 1737), Classes Plantarum
("Plant classes", 1738), and Hortus Cliffortianus (1738). The ideas he explored in these works were revised until, in 1751, his developed thinking was finally published as Philosophia Botanica ("Science of botany"), released simultaneously in Stockholm and Amsterdam.
in 1753, his ambitions of the 1730s were finally accomplished. Species Plantarum
was his most acclaimed work and a summary of all his botanical knowledge. Here was a global Flora that codified the usage of morphological terminology, presented a bibliography of all the pre-Linnaean botanical literature of scientific importance, and first applied binomials to the plant kingdom as a whole. It presented his new 'sexual system' of plant classification and became the starting point for scientific botanical nomenclature for 6000 of the 10,000 species he estimated made up the world’s flora. Here too, for the first time, the species, rather than the genus, becomes the fundamental taxonomic unit. Linnaeus defined species as " ... all structures in nature that do not owe their shape to the conditions of the growth place and other occasional features.” There was also the innovation of the now familiar nomen triviale (pl. nomina trivialia) of the binary name although Linnaeus still regarded the real names as the differentiae specificae or “phrase names” which were linked with the nomen triviale and embodied the diagnosis for the species — although be was eventually to regard the trivial name (specific epithet) as one of his great inventions. Sketches of the book are known from 1733 and the final effort resulted in his temporary collapse.
. He was, however, dismissive of botanical work other than taxonomy and presented his principles as dogma rather than reasoned argument.
These works established ground rules in a field which, at this time, had only “gentlemens agreements”. Conventions such as: no two genera should have the same name; no universally agreed mechanisms. Genera Plantarum ran to five editions, the first in 1737 containing short descriptions of the 935 plant genera known at that time. Observing his own principle to keep generic names as short, euphonious, distinctive and memorable as possible he rejected many names that had gone before, including those of his fellow botanists which was not popular. In their place he used names that commemorated patrons, friends and fellow botanists as well as many names taken from Greek and Roman mythology.
and Tournefort
. There was also the question of whether plants should a) be put together or separated because they conform to a definition (essentialism
) or b) put together with plants having similar characteristics generally, regardless of the definition (empiricism
). Linnaeus was inclined to take the first approach using the Method of Logical DivisionAnother example of Aristotelian logic is the Law of Excluded Middle (everything is either A or not A) used as the basis for dichotomous keys used in plant identification. based on definition, what he called in Philosophia Botanica §152 the dispositio theoretica — but in practice he employed both methods.
Botanical historian Alan Morton, though praising Linnaeus’s contribution to classification and nomenclature, is less complimentary about the theoretical ideas expressed in the publications discussed above:
Linnaean historian, chronicler, and analyst Frans Stafleu
points out that Linnaeus's training and background was scholastic. He excelled in logic ..."which was almost certainly the Aristotelian
and Thomistic logic
generally taught in secondary schools all over Europe".:
Linnaeus's philosophical approach to classification is also noted by botanist David Frodin who observed that applying the methodus naturalis to books and people as well as plants, animals and minerals, was a mark of Linnaeus's ‘scholastic’ view of the world:
Finally, Linnaean scholar William T. Stearn
has summarised Linnaeus's contribution to biology as follows:
Naturalist
Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...
and physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
Carolus Linnaeus
Carolus Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...
(1707–1778) who greatly influenced the development of botanical taxonomy
Taxonomy
Taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...
and systematics
Systematics
Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of terrestrial life, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees...
in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is "the first textbook of descriptive systematic botany and botanical Latin". It also contains Linnaeus's first published description of his binomial nomenclature
Binomial nomenclature
Binomial nomenclature is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, although they can be based on words from other languages...
.
Philosophia Botanica represents a maturing of Linnaeus's thinking on botany and its theoretical foundations, being an elaboration of ideas first published in his Fundamenta Botanica
Fundamenta Botanica
Fundamenta Botanica was one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus and issued both as a separate work and part of the Bibliotheca Botanica.This book states, for the first time, Linnaeus's ideas for the reformation of botanical taxonomy...
(1736) and Critica Botanica
Critica Botanica
Critica Botanica was written by Swedish botanist, physician, zoologist and naturalist Carl Linnaeus . The book was published in Germany when Linnaeus was twenty-nine with a discursus by the botanist Johannes Browallius , bishop of Åbo...
(1737), and set out in a similar way as a series of stark and uncompromising principles (aphorismen). The book also establishes a basic botanical terminology.
The following principle §79 demonstrates the style of presentation and Linnaeus's method of introducing his ideas.
A detailed analysis of the work is given in Frans Stafleu's Linnaeus and the Linnaeans, pp. 25–78.
Binomial nomenclature
To understand the objectives of the Philosophia Botanica it is first necessary to appreciate the state of botanical nomenclature at the time of Linnaeus. In accordance with the provisions of the present-day International Code of Botanical Nomenclature the starting point for the scientific names of plants effectively dates back to the list of species enumerated in Linnaeus’s Species Plantarum, ed. 1, published 1 May 1753. The Species Plantarum was, for European scientists, a comprehensive global FloraFlora
Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...
for its day, and by the 10th edition had reached over 3000 species. Linnaeus had learned plant names as short descriptive phrases (polynomials) known as nomina specifica. Each time a new species was described the diagnostic phrase-names had to be adjusted, and lists of names, especially those including synonyms (alternative names for the same plant) became extremely unwieldy. Linnaeus’s solution was to associate with the generic name an additional single word, what he termed the nomen triviale (which he first introduced in the Philosophia Botanica), to designate a species. Linnaeus emphasized that this was simply a matter of convenience, it was not to replace the diagnostic nomen specificum. But over time the nomen triviale became the “real” name and the nomen specificum became the Latin “diagnosis” that must, according to the rules of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, accompany the description of all new plant species: it was that part of the plant description distinguishing that particular species from all others. Linnaeus did not invent the binomial system but he was the person who provided the theoretical framework that lead to its universal acceptance. The second word of the binomial, the nomen triviale as Linnaeus called it, is now known as the specific epithet and the two words, the generic name and specific epithet together make up the species name. The binomial expresses both resemblance and difference at the same time — resemblance and relationship through the generic name: difference and distinctness through the specific epithet.
Until 1753 polynomials served two functions, to provide: a) a simple designation (label) b) a means of distinguishing that entity from others (diagnosis). Linnaeus's major achievement was not binomial nomenclature itself, but the separation of the designatory and diagnostic functions of names, the advantage of this being noted in Philosophia Botanica principle §257. He did this by linking species names to descriptions and the concepts of other botanists as expressed in their literature — all set within a structural framework of carefully drafted rules. In this he was an exemplary proponent of the general encyclopaedic and systematizing effort of the 18th century.
Historical context of Linnaean publications
Animal
Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...
(Regnum animale), the plant kingdom (Regnum vegetabile) and the "mineral kingdom
Mineral
A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...
" (Regnum lapideum) each of which he further divided into classes, orders, genera and species, with [generic] characters, [specific] differences, synonyms, and places of occurrence. The tenth edition of this book in 1758 has been adopted as the starting point for zoological nomenclature. The first edition of 1735 was just eleven pages long, but this expanded with further editions until the final thirteenth edition of 1767 had reached over 3000 pages.
In the early eighteenth century colonial expansion and exploration created a demand for the description of thousands of new organisms. This highlighted difficulties in communication about plants, the replication of descriptions, and the importance of an agreed way of presenting, publishing and applying plant names. From about 1730 when Linnaeus was in his early twenties and still in Uppsala, Sweden, he planned a listing all the genera and species of plants known to western science in his day. Before this could be achieved he needed to establish the principles of classification and nomenclature on which these works were to be based.
The Dutch period
From 1735 to 1738 Linnaeus worked in the Netherlands where he was personal physician to George CliffordGeorge Clifford III
George Clifford III was a wealthy Dutch banker and one of the directors of the Dutch East India Company. He is known for his keen interest in plants and gardens...
(1685–1760) a wealthy Anglo-Dutch merchant–banker with the Dutch East India Company
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
who had an impressive garden containing four large glasshouses that were filled with tropical and sub-tropical plants collected overseas. Linnaeus was enthralled by these collections and prepared a detailed systematic catalogue of the plants in the garden, which he published in 1738 as Hortus Cliffortianus
Hortus Cliffortianus
The Hortus Cliffortianus is a work of early botanical literature published in 1738.The work was a collaboration between Carl Linnaeus and Georg Dionysius Ehret, financed by George Clifford in 1735-1736. Clifford, a wealthy Amsterdam banker was a keen botanist with a large herbarium and governor of...
("in honour of Clifford's garden". It was during this exceptionally productive period of his life that he published the works that were to lay the foundations for biological nomenclature. These were Fundamenta Botanica
Fundamenta Botanica
Fundamenta Botanica was one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus and issued both as a separate work and part of the Bibliotheca Botanica.This book states, for the first time, Linnaeus's ideas for the reformation of botanical taxonomy...
("Foundations of botany", 1736), Bibliotheca Botanica
Bibliotheca Botanica
Bibliotheca Botanica was written by Swedish botanist, physician, zoologist and naturalist Carl Linnaeus . The book was written and published in Amsterdam when Linnaeus was twenty-eight and dedicated to the botanist Johannes Burman...
("Botanical bibliography", 1736), and Critica Botanica ("Critique of botany", 1737) He soon put his theoretical ideas into practice in his Genera Plantarum
Genera Plantarum
Genera Plantarum is a publication of Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus . The fifth edition served as a complementary volume to Species Plantarum . Article 13 of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature states that "It is agreed to associate generic names which first appear in Linnaeus'...
("Genera of plants", 1737), Flora Lapponica
Flora Lapponica
Flora Lapponica is an account of the plants of Lapland written by botanist, zoologist and naturalist Carl Linnaeus following his expedition to Lapland....
("Flora of Lapland", 1737), Classes Plantarum
Classes Plantarum
Classes Plantarum was written by Swedish botanist, physician, zoologist and naturalist Carl Linnaeus ....
("Plant classes", 1738), and Hortus Cliffortianus (1738). The ideas he explored in these works were revised until, in 1751, his developed thinking was finally published as Philosophia Botanica ("Science of botany"), released simultaneously in Stockholm and Amsterdam.
Species plantarum
With the foundations of plant nomenclature and classification now in place Linnaeus then set about the monumental task of describing all the plants known in his day (about 5,900 species) and, with the publication of Species PlantarumSpecies Plantarum
Species Plantarum was first published in 1753, as a two-volume work by Carl Linnaeus. Its prime importance is perhaps that it is the primary starting point of plant nomenclature as it exists today. This means that the first names to be considered validly published in botany are those that appear...
in 1753, his ambitions of the 1730s were finally accomplished. Species Plantarum
Species Plantarum
Species Plantarum was first published in 1753, as a two-volume work by Carl Linnaeus. Its prime importance is perhaps that it is the primary starting point of plant nomenclature as it exists today. This means that the first names to be considered validly published in botany are those that appear...
was his most acclaimed work and a summary of all his botanical knowledge. Here was a global Flora that codified the usage of morphological terminology, presented a bibliography of all the pre-Linnaean botanical literature of scientific importance, and first applied binomials to the plant kingdom as a whole. It presented his new 'sexual system' of plant classification and became the starting point for scientific botanical nomenclature for 6000 of the 10,000 species he estimated made up the world’s flora. Here too, for the first time, the species, rather than the genus, becomes the fundamental taxonomic unit. Linnaeus defined species as " ... all structures in nature that do not owe their shape to the conditions of the growth place and other occasional features.” There was also the innovation of the now familiar nomen triviale (pl. nomina trivialia) of the binary name although Linnaeus still regarded the real names as the differentiae specificae or “phrase names” which were linked with the nomen triviale and embodied the diagnosis for the species — although be was eventually to regard the trivial name (specific epithet) as one of his great inventions. Sketches of the book are known from 1733 and the final effort resulted in his temporary collapse.
Fundamenta, Critica and Philosophia
The Fundamenta Botanica (“The Foundations of Botany”) of 1736 consisted of 365 aphorisms (principles) with principles 210–324 devoted to nomenclature. He followed this form of presentation in his other work on nomenclature. Linnaeus apparently regarded these as a “grammar and a syntax” for the study of botany. Chapters VII to X comprised principles 210 to 324 to do with he nomenclature of genera, species and varieties and how to treat synonyms. The Critica Botanica was an extension of these nomenclatural chapters of the Fundamenta. Critica Botanica which was published a year later in July 1737, the principles of the Fundamenta are repeated essentially unchanged but with extensive additions in smaller print. It was this work, with its dogmatic, often amusing and provocative statements, that was to spread his ideas and enthrall intellects of the stature of GoetheJohann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
. He was, however, dismissive of botanical work other than taxonomy and presented his principles as dogma rather than reasoned argument.
These works established ground rules in a field which, at this time, had only “gentlemens agreements”. Conventions such as: no two genera should have the same name; no universally agreed mechanisms. Genera Plantarum ran to five editions, the first in 1737 containing short descriptions of the 935 plant genera known at that time. Observing his own principle to keep generic names as short, euphonious, distinctive and memorable as possible he rejected many names that had gone before, including those of his fellow botanists which was not popular. In their place he used names that commemorated patrons, friends and fellow botanists as well as many names taken from Greek and Roman mythology.
Historical assessment
Linnaeus's system of classification follows the principles of Aristotelian logic by which arranging subjects into classes is classification; distinguishing divisions of classes is logical division. The group to be divided is the genus; the parts into which it is divided are the species. The terms genus and species acquired their specialized biological usage from Linnaeus's predecessors, in particular RayJohn Ray
John Ray was an English naturalist, sometimes referred to as the father of English natural history. Until 1670, he wrote his name as John Wray. From then on, he used 'Ray', after "having ascertained that such had been the practice of his family before him".He published important works on botany,...
and Tournefort
Joseph Pitton de Tournefort
Joseph Pitton de Tournefort was a French botanist, notable as the first to make a clear definition of the concept of genus for plants.- Biography :...
. There was also the question of whether plants should a) be put together or separated because they conform to a definition (essentialism
Essentialism
In philosophy, essentialism is the view that, for any specific kind of entity, there is a set of characteristics or properties all of which any entity of that kind must possess. Therefore all things can be precisely defined or described...
) or b) put together with plants having similar characteristics generally, regardless of the definition (empiricism
Empiricism
Empiricism is a theory of knowledge that asserts that knowledge comes only or primarily via sensory experience. One of several views of epistemology, the study of human knowledge, along with rationalism, idealism and historicism, empiricism emphasizes the role of experience and evidence,...
). Linnaeus was inclined to take the first approach using the Method of Logical DivisionAnother example of Aristotelian logic is the Law of Excluded Middle (everything is either A or not A) used as the basis for dichotomous keys used in plant identification. based on definition, what he called in Philosophia Botanica §152 the dispositio theoretica — but in practice he employed both methods.
Botanical historian Alan Morton, though praising Linnaeus’s contribution to classification and nomenclature, is less complimentary about the theoretical ideas expressed in the publications discussed above:
Linnaean historian, chronicler, and analyst Frans Stafleu
Frans Stafleu
Frans Antonie Stafleu was a Dutch systematic botanist, former Chair of the Institute of Systematic Botany at the University of Utrecht, and author of Taxonomic Literature: A Selective Guide to Botanical Publications and Collections, with Dates, Commentaries, and Types along with 644 other...
points out that Linnaeus's training and background was scholastic. He excelled in logic ..."which was almost certainly the Aristotelian
Organon
The Organon is the name given by Aristotle's followers, the Peripatetics, to the standard collection of his six works on logic:* Categories* On Interpretation* Prior Analytics* Posterior Analytics...
and Thomistic logic
Thomism
Thomism is the philosophical school that arose as a legacy of the work and thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. In philosophy, his commentaries on Aristotle are his most lasting contribution...
generally taught in secondary schools all over Europe".:
Linnaeus's philosophical approach to classification is also noted by botanist David Frodin who observed that applying the methodus naturalis to books and people as well as plants, animals and minerals, was a mark of Linnaeus's ‘scholastic’ view of the world:
Finally, Linnaean scholar William T. Stearn
William T. Stearn
William Thomas Stearn CBE was a British botanist known for his expertise on the history of botany and in the classical languages. His work is widely read, with his etymological dictionary of Latin names of garden plants likely the best-known of the works appearing under his own name...
has summarised Linnaeus's contribution to biology as follows: