The Linnaean Botanical Nomenclature(S) As “A Point of View on the World”
From theory of ideas to theory of succedaneum: The Linnaean botanical nomenclature(s) as “a point of view on the world” Philippe Selosse 1. Introduction Botanical nomenclature did not arise by spontaneous generation: its elaboration is the continuation of the Greek and Latin folk nomenclature, which was based on processes of classification and categorization called folk processes (Berlin 1972), and of the logical nomenclature of the sixteenth century (Selosse 2004, 2007). On the whole, the elaboration of nomenclature took a great deal of time, more or less twenty centuries. The consequence is that nomenclature is not the fact of one speaker, but the product of many speakers over a very long period of time, connected with several epistemic contexts. Moreover, these contexts are characterized by non-specialization with regard to disciplines: philosophy, language and botanical research were simultaneously considered. The aim of this paper, therefore, is not to represent Linnaeus as a pioneer or a maker of binominal nomenclature out of nothing. On the one hand, Linnaeus ap- pears, not as person, but through his works, as the representative, the paragon, of the turning point in another epistemic context: his work constitutes a gen- uine synthesis of earlier theories and those that followed. On the other hand, the Linnaean nomenclature is, for the first time, one which is self-conscious, that is, which is conscious of being a system as such: in this scientific consciousness we can paradigmatically observe the articulation of plant classification in nomen- clature, and vice versa. My aim is to draw from Linnaeus’ works his theory of nomenclature within the epistemic context of the Enlightenment, that is, by taking into consideration its own complexity of blended scientific, philosophi- cal and linguistic conceptualizations.
[Show full text]