Carl Linnaeus

If you read a thumbnail biography, in an encyclopedia or on a website, you're liable to be told that Carl Linnaeus was "the father of taxonomy"—that is, of biological classification—or that he created the Latin binomial system of naming species, still used today. Those statements are roughly accurate, but they don't convey what made the man so important to biology during his era and afterward. You might read that he coined the name Homo sapiens for our own species and placed us, daringly, within a category of mammals that included monkeys and apes. That's true too, but somewhat misleading. Linnaeus was no full-blown evolutionist. On the contrary, he heartily embraced the prevailing creationist view of biological origins, which stipulated that studying nature reveals evidence for the creative powers and mysterious orderliness of God. He wasn't such a pious man, though, that he sought nothing but godliness in the material world. Here's what makes him a hero for our time: He treasured the diversity of nature for its own sake, not just for its theological edification, and he hungered to embrace every possible bit of it within his own mind. He believed that humankind should discover, name, count, understand, and appreciate every kind of creature on Earth.

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