Observation and Classification of Living Beings

This chapter focuses on a few moments in the discovery of the natural world, on the one hand, and logical and scientific thinking, on the other hand, which we consider key to understanding the main scientific advances in botany and plant systematics from the 16th to the 18th centuries. As a man of the 16th century, Pierre Andre Matthiole believed that God, having created nature and the living world, taught Adam about living beings and expected humans to develop this knowledge, particularly about medicinal plants. Andrea Cesalpino was the first naturalist of the 16th century who really cared about establishing a classification system for plants, such as an army in battle formation, according to a specific criterion: fruits. In logic, genus and species are of Aristotelian origin; for Aristotle, genus and species are relative to one another, but only the species exists in reality.