There are as many species as the infinite being created diverse forms in the beginning, which, following the laws of generation, produced many others, but always similar to them: therefore there are as many species as we have different structures before us today.
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"Homo sapiens, nosce te ipsum. (Man, know thyself.)"
"The whole of natural history depends on the accurate knowledge of species."
"I demand of you, and of the whole world, that you show me a generic character... by which to distinguish between Man and Ape. I myself most assuredly know of none. But perhaps I should still do it acc…"
"A world without names is a world without knowledge."
"A plant is a living being, but it cannot feel."
Swedish botanist and the father of modern taxonomy whose Systema Naturae (1735) introduced binomial nomenclature for naming all species. Closely associated with Joseph Banks (British naturalist who carried Linnaean classification on Cook's voyages). For an intellectual contrast, see Comte de Buffon, French naturalist and Histoire Naturelle author (1749-1788) — Buffon explicitly attacked Linnaean fixed-categories taxonomy as artificial and rejected the binomial system; his gradualist, environment-shaped natural history was the explicit alternative. Anticipates the fixed-species-vs-evolution debate Darwin would later resolve.
From 'Philosophia Botanica' (1751), aphorism 157. A statement on the fixity of species and divine creation.
Date: 1751
PhilosophicalFound in 1 providers: gemini
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The number of species alive today equals exactly what was originally created at the beginning of time. Each original form reproduced only its own kind, passing down its structure faithfully through generations. What we observe in nature now — every distinct body plan and form — represents one of those original created types, unchanged in fundamental structure from its first appearance.
This quote is foundational to Linnaeus's life work. As the architect of binomial nomenclature and the Systema Naturae, he needed a stable, fixed concept of species to build taxonomy upon. His entire classification system depended on species being discrete, countable, and permanent — chaotic species boundaries would undermine the ordered natural hierarchy he devoted his career to documenting.
In 18th-century Europe, natural theology dominated science: God's creation was orderly and fixed. Linnaeus worked before Darwin, when fixity of species was orthodox. The Scientific Revolution had made cataloguing nature prestigious, and explorers were returning with thousands of unknown specimens. Determining what counted as a distinct species versus a variety was an urgent practical and theological question for naturalists of his era.
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