An Ideal Taxonomic System is Not Easy to Develop Because

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Definition/Introduction

Among early modern naturalists, "systems of nature" are the methods used by naturalists to classify living beings. Taxonomy, a word coined only in 1813 by de Candolle, refers to the classes or taxa that are obtained by applying one or another method of classification. In order to illustrate their variety, some such methods are presented in section "The Variety of Systems." The following sections explain the difference between natural and artificial systems (section "Artificial and Natural Systems") and summarize contemporary debates on early modern taxonomy and essentialism (section "Essentialism"). Early modern taxonomists are indeed not the only humans to classify natural beings (section "The Classificatory Mind"). What however could be the specificity of their activity? That question is addressed in sections "The Lack of a Communal Experience," "Abstraction from the...

Related Topics

• Botany
• Zoology

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Authors and Affiliations

1. Department of Philosophy, Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium

   Thibault De Meyer

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Correspondence to Thibault De Meyer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

1. Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

   Prof. Dr. Dana Jalobeanu

2. Dept. of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Ghent University Dept. Philosophy & Moral Sci, Ghent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium

   Charles T. Wolfe

Section Editor information

1. Département Histoire et Philosophie des Sciences, Université Paris Diderot, Paris, France

   Justin E. H. Smith

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De Meyer, T. (2020). Nature and Taxonomy, Systems of. In: Jalobeanu, D., Wolfe, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20791-9_157-1

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• DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20791-9_157-1

• Received: 01 November 2019

• Accepted: 27 January 2020

• Published: 11 February 2020

• Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

• Print ISBN: 978-3-319-20791-9

• Online ISBN: 978-3-319-20791-9

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