Gibson - Animal, vegetable, mineral?: how eighteenth-century science disrupted the natural order

Animal, vegetable, or mineral: today, this is a simple parlour game for children but in the eighteenth century it was a problem that exercised some of the finest minds of Europe. The question of distinguishing animal from plant from mineral may seem like a straightforward one but in fact it can very quickly lead to incredibly complex problems: how do we differentiate the kingdoms? are there different kinds of life? how does generation of life occur? What is life? It may be an easy task to say that an elephant is an animal while an oak tree is a plant, but what is a sponge, a coral, a Venus fly-trap, a fossil? These curious objects seem to combine properties from across the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms and blur the lines between them. Today, we have developed an agreed set of rules for establishing an objects kingdom, but it wasnt always so. The problem really came to a head in the eighteenth century: this was a time when some very strange creatures became known to naturalists; when better tools like microscopes enabled naturalists to make more minute examinations of natural objects; when a classification craze was sweeping across Europe; and when Enlightenment culture was encouraging people to rethink old ideas. This combination of factors led naturalists to ask hard questions about how we know whether or not something is alive, and what kind of life it possesses. These questionsso fundamental, yet so complicatedpuzzled men of science. In the wider world, their answers had the power to incite tremendous controversy about the role of God in the universe and about the natural order of society.

The eighteenth century was a time of Enlightenment, of empire, and of industrialization. Social, political, economic, and scientific changes were happening at a faster pace than ever before. Agricultural societies became urban societies, farm labourers became factory employees, new wealth was created and distributed in different ways, Enlightenment ideas began to roll out of Germany and France to reshape the intellectual landscape of all Europe, empires expanded their reach into ever-further corners of the globe, and revolutionary ideas began to ferment. These changes were intricately interlinked, each having complex and unforeseen repercussions across society. Naturally, they were also keenly felt by the scientific community of the day. Increased exploration and the expansion of European empires brought Europeans into contact with peoples they had never met before, with new terrains, new languages, new customs, and, of course, new species of plants and animals. The mass move from rural to urban settings changed mans relationship with, and view of, nature. New wealth allowed some groups more leisure time, and made scientific books and instruments more accessible to a larger section of society. Industrialization necessitated new technologies and fostered bold innovations. The Enlightenment movement encouraged learning and rational discourse, and opened the scientific world to new audiences. And revolutionary sentiments allowed people to question traditional beliefs about God, society, and nature.