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Linnaeus’ work on the classification of man forms one of the 18th-century roots of modern scientific racism. This page aims to look at Linnaeus’ works in detail, both printed and in manuscript, to trace the development of an idea which became fundamental in the history of anthropology and has had devastating and far-reaching consequences for humanity, including the dehumanisation of non ...
Biography. Carl Linnaeus the Younger was enrolled at the University of Uppsala at the age of 9 and was taught science by his father's students, including Pehr Löfling, Daniel Solander, and Johan Peter Falk. In 1763, aged just 22, he succeeded his father as the head of Practical Medicine at Uppsala. His promotion to professor — without taking ...
- 1 November 1783 (aged 42), Uppsala, Sweden
- Overview
- Early life and travels
- The “sexual system” of classification
Swedish naturalist and explorer Carolus Linnaeus was the first to frame principles for defining natural genera and species of organisms and to create a uniform system for naming them, known as binomial nomenclature.
When was Carolus Linnaeus born?
Carolus Linnaeus was born on May 23, 1707, in Råshult, Småland, Sweden.
Where did Carolus Linnaeus study?
Carolus Linnaeus’s early interest in botany was channeled by a teacher at Växjö gymnasium, in Kronoberg, southern Sweden. In 1727 Linnaeus began his studies in medicine at Lund University but transferred to Uppsala University in 1728.
Carolus Linnaeus (born May 23, 1707, Råshult, Småland, Sweden—died January 10, 1778, Uppsala) Swedish naturalist and explorer who was the first to frame principles for defining natural genera and species of organisms and to create a uniform system for naming them (binomial nomenclature).
Linnaeus was the son of a curate and grew up in Småland, a poor region in southern Sweden. His early interest in botany was channeled by a teacher at Växjö gymnasium, who acquainted him with the plant system of French botanist and physician Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, an essay on plant sexuality by French botanist Sébastian Vaillant, and the physiological writings of Dutch physician and professor of medicine Herman Boerhaave. In 1727 Linnaeus began his studies in medicine at Lund University, but he transferred to Uppsala University in 1728. Because of his financial situation, he could only visit a few lectures; however, the university professor Olof Celsius provided Linnaeus access to his library. From 1730 to 1732 he was able to subsidize himself by teaching botany in the university garden of Uppsala.
At this early stage, Linnaeus laid the groundwork for much of his later work in a series of manuscripts. Their publication, however, had to await more-fortuitous circumstances. In 1732 the Uppsala Academy of Sciences sent Linnaeus on a research expedition to Lapland. After his return in the autumn of that year, he gave private lectures in botany and mineral assaying. That Christmas he used some of his earnings to pay a visit to Claes Sohlberg, his friend and fellow student, in Falun, the capital of the copper-mining region of Dalarna, in central Sweden. There he became acquainted with the governor, who financed a second trip to the region in the summer of 1734. At the time, it was necessary for Swedish medical students to complete their doctoral degrees abroad in order to open a successful medical practice in their homeland. In an agreement with Sohlberg’s father, who was the royal inspector of the Falun copper mine and impressed with Linnaeus’s botanical and mineralogical abilities, Linnaeus received an annual stipend to offset medical school expenses in the Netherlands. In return, Linnaeus promised to take young Sohlberg with him on the trip and serve as his academic mentor. Before they embarked on their journey in the spring of 1735, Linnaeus became engaged to Sara Elisabeth—the daughter of Johan Moraeus, a well-to-do physician in Falun. It was agreed that their marriage should take place after Linnaeus returned from the Netherlands in three years’ time.
A few days after arriving in the Dutch town of Harderwijk in May 1735, Linnaeus completed his examinations and received his medical degree following the submission of a thesis he had prepared in advance on the topic of intermittent fevers. Linnaeus and Sohlberg then journeyed to Leiden, where Linnaeus sought patronage for the publication of his numerous manuscripts. He was immediately successful, and his Systema Naturae (“The System of Nature”) was published only a few months later with financial support from Jan Frederik Gronovius, senator of Leiden, and Isaac Lawson, a Scottish physician. This folio volume of only 11 pages presented a hierarchical classification, or taxonomy, of the three kingdoms of nature: stones, plants, and animals. Each kingdom was subdivided into classes, orders, genera, species, and varieties. This hierarchy of taxonomic ranks replaced traditional systems of biological classification that were based on mutually exclusive divisions, or dichotomies. Linnaeus’s classification system has survived in biology, though additional ranks, such as families, have been added to accommodate growing numbers of species.
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Faces of Science
In particular, it was the botanical section of Systema Naturae that built Linnaeus’s scientific reputation. After reading essays on sexual reproduction in plants by Vaillant and by German botanist Rudolph Jacob Camerarius, Linnaeus had become convinced of the idea that all organisms reproduce sexually. As a result, he expected each plant to possess male and female sexual organs (stamens and pistils), or “husbands and wives,” as he also put it. On this basis, he designed a simple system of distinctive characteristics to classify each plant. The number and position of the stamens, or husbands, determined the class to which it belonged, whereas the number and position of pistils, or wives, determined the order. This “sexual system,” as Linnaeus called it, became extremely popular, though certainly not only because of its practicality but also because of its erotic connotations and its allusions to contemporary gender relations. French political theorist Jean-Jacques Rousseau used the system for his “Huit lettres élémentaires sur la botanique à Madame Delessert” (1772; “Eight Letters on the Elements of Botany Addressed to Madame Delessert”). English physician Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles Darwin, used Linnaeus’s sexual system for his poem “The Botanic Garden” (1789), which caused an uproar among contemporaries for its explicit passages.
- Staffan Müller-Wille
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Carl Linnaeus [a] (23 May 1707 [note 1] – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné, [3] [b] was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms. He is known as the "father of modern taxonomy ". [4] Many of his writings were in Latin; his name is ...
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- Uppsala University
Feb 1, 2009 · For Linnaeus the identification, naming and classification of different kinds of animals, plants, diseases, fossils and rocks had practical as well as theoretical importance. In his life and work he clearly demonstrates the 'scientific approach' including careful information gathering, exploration, empiricism, dissection, accurate observations ...
- Gordon McGregor Reid
- 2009
Carl Linnaeus, also known as Carl von Linné or Carolus Linnaeus, is often called the Father of Taxonomy. His system for naming, ranking, and classifying organisms is still in wide use today (with many changes). His ideas on classification have influenced generations of biologists during and after his own lifetime, even those opposed to the ...
Dec 8, 2020 · Carl Linnaeus was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist who formalized the binomial nomenclature system for classifying organisms.(Image credit: Grafissimo/Getty Images) Carl Linnaeus was ...
