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.
- ISBN10 0231064403
- ISBN13 9780231064408
- Publish Date 1 December 1994
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Columbia University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 616
- Language English