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Linnaeus

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the pioneering 18th century Swedish botanist, who devised a method of naming species and a new system for classifying plants and animals.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life, ideas and legacy of the pioneering Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707 鈥� 1778). The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau once wrote: "Tell him I know no greater man on earth".

The son of a parson, Linnaeus grew up in an impoverished part of Sweden but managed to gain a place at university. He went on to transform biology by making two major innovations. He devised a simpler method of naming species and he developed a new system for classifying plants and animals, a system that became known as the Linnaean hierarchy. He was also one of the first people to grow a banana in Europe.

With

Staffan Muller-Wille
University Lecturer in History of Life, Human and Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge

Stella Sandford
Professor of Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University, London

and

Steve Jones
Senior Research Fellow in Genetics at University College, London

Producer Luke Mulhall

Available now

50 minutes

Last on

Thu 20 Apr 2023 21:30
大象传媒 Radio 4

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Links and further reading

CONTRIBUTORS

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READING LIST

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Wilfrid Blunt, The Compleat Naturalist (first published 1971; Frances Lincoln, 2004)

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Gunnar Broberg, The Man Who Organized Nature: The Life of Linnaeus (Princeton University Press, 2023)

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HA Curry, N Jardine, JA Secord, and E Spary (eds.), In Worlds of Natural History (Cambridge University Press, 2018), especially 鈥楲innaean Paper Tools鈥� by Staffan M眉ller-Wille

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Patricia Fara, Sex, Botany and Empire: The Story of Carl Linnaeus and Joseph Banks (Icon, 2017)

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N Hopwood, R Flemming, and L Kassell (eds.), In Reproduction: Antiquity to the Present Day (Cambridge University Press, 2018), especially 鈥楲innaeus and the Love Lives of Plants鈥� by Staffan M眉ller-Wille

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Steve Jones, Almost Like a Whale: The Origin Of Species Updated (Black Swan, 2000)

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Lisbet Koerner, Linnaeus: Nature and Nation (Harvard University Press, 1999)

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James L. Larson, Reason and Experience: The Representation of Natural Order in the Work of Carl Linnaeus (University of California Press, 1971)

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Carl Linnaeus (trans. Stephen Freer), Philosophia Botanica (first published 1751; Oxford University Press, 2003)

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Staffan M眉ller-Wille and Isabelle Charmantier. 鈥楴atural History and Information Overload: The Case of Linnaeus鈥� (Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 43, no. 1, 2012)

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Trevor Pearce, 鈥樷�淎 Great Complication of Circumstances鈥� 鈥� Darwin and the Economy of Nature鈥� (Journal of the History of Biology 43, no. 3, 2010)

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Nellejet Zorgdrager, 鈥楲innaeus as ethnographer of Sami culture鈥� (Tijdschrift voor Skandinavistiek 29, no. 1 & 2, 2008)

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RELATED LINKS

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Broadcasts

  • Thu 20 Apr 2023 09:00
    大象传媒 Radio 4
  • Thu 20 Apr 2023 21:30
    大象传媒 Radio 4

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