With and Beyond Taxonomy
With and Beyond Taxonomy
Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) on Generation, Economy of Nature, and the Human Condition
Staffan Müller-Wille
16 September 2025 – 5 PM (CEST)
The historiography of the life sciences has appreciated the work of the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) mainly for his contributions to the discipline of systematics.
His introduction of binomial nomenclature and the so-called Linnaean hierarchy are largely seen as foundational for the practice of botany and zoology, but have been overwhelmingly problematized as a legacy of a static, typological worldview that abstracts living beings from their natural and cultural contexts.
This talk provides an overview of the extensive, but lesser-known work that Linnaeus produced alongside his systematic writings.
It touches on themes that we would classify as belonging to ecology, reproductive biology and anthropology today, and demonstrates that his thinking was much more relational and dynamic than we usually take for granted.
About the Speaker ...
Staffan Müller-Wille is Professor in History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences at the University of Cambridge and holds an Honorary Chair at the Institute for the History of Medicine and Science in Lübeck.
His work explores how systems of classification, heredity, and data management have shaped the life sciences from the early modern period to the present. He has written extensively on Linnaean taxonomy, concepts of race and kinship, and the cultural history of genetics. His recent publications include studies on the diagrammatics of relatedness, the ethnoscientific knowledge systems of indigenous peoples, and a reassessment of Linnaeus’s engagements with the economy of nature.
