Description:
Before the 18th century, scholarly interest in the natural world was largely the province of medical doctors, artists, and alchemists. During that century, however, and for many reasons, the study of nature spread to all sectors of society. As Paul Farber points out in this history, most private libraries contained Buffon's 36-volume encyclopedia of animals, and practical-minded politicians such as Thomas Jefferson urged that the natural world be catalogued with an eye to economic potential and utility, the gods of the Enlightenment. The resulting attention to classification and systematics influenced natural history for generations. This work of sorting remains at the heart of basic science, Farber continues, and if some scholars scorn it as old-fashioned, the need to catalog the world continues to be pressing as the biodiversity crisis mounts. Examining the contributions of thinkers as various as Nicholas Baudin, Julian Huxley, Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Stephen Jay Gould, and Edward O. Wilson, Farber shows that the "naturalist tradition," which seeks to identify the underlying order of nature, is not only of central importance to the life sciences, but also an ideal vehicle for communicating advanced research to the educated public. --Gregory McNamee
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