Talk:Carl Linnaeus: Difference between revisions

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His names

The current article (as of the writing of THIS comment) begins: "Carl Linnaeus (Carl Linné, Latinized as Carolus Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné ..."

I do not believe this is true or accurate. "Latinized" implies (to me) that the man had a "true" name which was rendered in Latin as something else. I am neither a scholar nor an academic. I am certainly not an encyclopedist. However, Linnaeus is one of my great interests in life.

I believe that only the name "Carolus" is a Latinization (of Carl). His surname is actually Latin. He was a Swede with a Latin name.

"In Linnæus' time, most Swedes had no surnames. Linnæus' grandfather was named Ingemar Bengtsson (son of Bengt), according to Scandinavian tradition. Linnaeus' father was known as Nils Ingemarsson (son of Ingemar)." This is a fairly typical system of patronymic surnames that could be found all over at various times through history. Anyway... most Swedes had no surnames. Some did, most particularly the nobility. Times were changing... rapidly and drastically. And as they did, some traditionally "noble" institutions became available to more people. However, bureaucracies are slow. In Linnæus' time one didn't need to be noble to go to school but one did need a surname to register... and Linnæus' father matriculated at the University of Lund. Therefore, Nils Ingemarssson (son of Ingemar Bengtsson (son of someone named Bengt SOMETHING)) needed to give himself a surname. "In the academic world, Latin was the language of choice, so when Linnæus' father went to the University of Lund, he coined himself a Latin surname: Linnæus, referring to a large linden (lime) tree on the family property, Linnagård (linn being an archaic form of Swedish lind, the linden)."

Nils' name was now Nils Ingemarsson Linnæus. And when he had a son in 1707 and gave his son the name Carl.

So, in 1707, Nils named his son Carl Linnæus... not Carl Nilsson... and not Carl Linné.

Carl Linné, Latinized as Carolus Linnaeus <- I don't think this is true. Anyway, I won't change this article because I am not qualified. But... if the powers that be believe my point to be valid, I hope someone will change it. 70.131.34.227 (talk) 14:04, 4 October 2008 (UTC) Hank01 (talk) 14:06, 4 October 2008 (UTC) (I wasn't logged in before)

This is very true and very accurate. The man HAD a "true" name, 'Carl Linnæus' which he got when he was born, after his father. Which was rendered in Latin not as something else, but 'Carolus Linnaeus; his name in Latin. The fact that his father give himself this surname and that it was already a latinized form of Linn, doesn’t change anything. The ending –us in old times was very often the academic name in Sweden given to or chosen by any academic person, and used by the person when publishing anything. This is a very common thing in sweden, there is nothing unusual about it. The phonebooks in Lund and Upasla are full of names like this. When you see a name like this you know that the person and his family has an old academic or noble (or perhaps both) background.

Warrington (talk) 12:20, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Correspondence archive template

German Wikipadia has a template (de:Vorlage:LCL) which is used on over 100 biographies of persons who communicated with Linnaeus. I've translated it, see Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit for an example. As for the syntax: {{LCL|943}} yields: Carl von Linné; Carl Linnaeus. "Correspondence". (first name is automatically taken from the article name, makes not much sense on Linne's own article). -- Matthead  Discuß   15:42, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

Linnaean taxonomy

"Linnaeus is regarded by some contemporary humanities scholars as "The Father of Scientific racism". The charge is that, through his works he bound observable differences in 'race' with uncorroborated discriminatory stereotypes that precisely elevated the European 'race' above the "darker" races. It also made divisions that were biologically and taxonomically unsound, leading (some speculate) to the institution of scientific racism, which persists today.[17]"

Does this really belong under this heading? It seems a bit non sequitur to me, just reading it. Surely it belongs in a "moderns interpretations", "controversy" or some such heading??? Huw Powell (talk) 09:02, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

I agree. It is quite true that the implications of Linnaeus' views on race are problematic at best (as were the ideologies of many Nordic thinkers of the time). But the contributions of Linnaeus are far reaching and significant. It is true that the racism issue should be mentioned - somewhere - but I agree that it should be a "controversy" or "issues of race" heading. Hank01 (talk) 14:10, 4 October 2008 (UTC)

hum

now what is wrong with removing the two sentence part in the lead about Linnaeus name? The exact same thing is stated in one or two long sentences just a section down (too long in my opinion). again, WP:LEAD and all that...

Fred-J 14:40, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

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Name confusion?

I do not want to get into an edit war, but it is wrong to say that: In Linnaeus' time, most Swedes had no surnames. Everybody had a surname in Sweden in those times, even those who were called Eriksson, Bengtson, Gustafsson, Tordson, Adolphson Ingemarson or whatever denoting, son of Erik, Ingemar, Bengt, Gustav, Adolf or Tord (or alternatively -dotter, for a women, like Karin Månsdotter (1550–1612), "daughter of Måns"). A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name.

They often did not have a family name.

A family name or last name is a type of surname and part of a person's name indicating the family to which the person belongs. And :

The name of this scientist comes in different variants: 'Carl Linnaeus', 'Carolus Linnaeus'. 'Carl von Linné', and sometimes just 'Carl Linné'. There is often confusion about his real Swedish name (Carl Linnaeus) and the Latinized form (Carolus Linnaeus) he used most when he published his scientific works in Latin.

There is no confusion about his name. Everything is very clear and it is very easy to understand. But since you removed this part, it is indeed confusing now.

The name of this scientist comes in different variants:

he was born as 'Carl Linnaeus'. The latinized form is 'Carolus Linnaeus' used when he became a scientist, as the scientific language used of his time was the Latin and this was also the name he used when he published his scientific works. 'Carl von Linné' is his ennobled name and he sometimes is mentioned just 'Carl Linné'.

Your edits are making it sounds like it is a big confusion about it. There is no confusion. It can not be the purpose of an encyclopaedia to make things more confusing like they actually are.

Once you have this introduction, than you can go on explaining the different backgrounds of these names. If not, then you are really confusing the readers. there is no need to make things more difficult to understand than they actually are.

Warrington (talk) 11:47, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

He enjoyed long walks on the beach and loved to go to Chuckie Cheese!