The Development of Biological Systematics

Download or read book The Development of Biological Systematics written by Peter F. Stevens and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1994-12-01 with total page 660 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A reevaluation of the history of biological systematics that discusses the formative years of the so-called natural system of classification in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Shows how classifications came to be treated as conventions; systematic practice was not linked to clearly articulated theory; there was general confusion over the "shape" of nature; botany, elements of natural history, and systematics were conflated; and systematics took a position near the bottom of the hierarchy of sciences.