The Species Problem by Igor Ya. Pavlinov;

Author:Igor Ya. Pavlinov;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CRC Press (Unlimited)
Published: 2022-12-26T00:00:00+00:00

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Having passed through various interpretations of the medieval and renaissance philosophers, biblical ideas of the divine origin of genera and species become an important part of the ontic component of the cognitive situation of early systematics of the 16th–18th centuries, in which context the contemporary species problematics becomes shaped. It should be particularly noted that the first naturalist systematicians follow principally the tradition of realistic scholasticism in the interpretation of genera and species. Here, we briefly analyze the views of two key figures, J. Ray and C. Linnaeus, who most definitely say about the divine origin of the taxonomic categories.

John Ray is not only a naturalist but also an amateur theologian, and it is his biblical enthusiasm that concerns us hear. As a systematician, he professes a scholastic genus-species scheme, subordinating species to genus and considering them as classification units. However, as a natural theologian, he puts the species in the first place, being sure that these were the species that were created in accordance with the ideas in Divine Mind [Ray 1696, Praefatio: (viii)]. Indeed, in the introductory section of the History of Plant Species, Ray writes that “the number of species in nature is strictly determined: God interrupted on the sixth day his great work, the creation of new species” [Ray 1686: 40]. This argument evidently corresponds to the special creation model, and Ray repeats it in his The Wisdom of God and Discourse on the Species differences to substantiate, with reference to divine creation, the constancy of both species themselves and their number [Ray 1714, 1928a]. When outlining this standpoint, he does not mention genera: it seems that in Ray’s world picture, God did not create genera, limiting himself to the creation of the species—contrary to the fact that the canonical Greek edition of the Bible says about genera only, and its Latin edition says about both genera and species (see above). At any rate, J. Ray seems to be the first among systematicians to substantiate the reality of species as a natural unit with a direct reference to divine creation. With this, however, it is to be reminded that he, on such account, does not discriminate between species of animate and inanimate natures: they all are divine creation units of the same kind (see Section 4.3.2).

The position of Carl Linnaeus regarding the divine origin of plants changes significantly throughout his lifespan. At the beginning of his scientific career, he follows Ray to assert that “all the species of botanists, existing now or in the future in their number, were created by the wave of the hand of the almighty Creator” [Linnaeus 1737a: § 310]; therefore, “there are as many species as there are different forms created by an initially Infinite Being” ([Linnaeus 1737b, Ratio operis: § 5; Linnaeus 1751: § 157], italics added), and he clarifies this thesis by stating that “the Creator has entrusted the generation of species to Nature” [Linnaeus 2003: § 259]. At this point, Linnaeus adopts the special creation model; with this, of interest is that he seems to agree with the Augustinian standpoint.

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