Passage 3
In the seventeenth century, the burgeoning field of taxonomy, the science of classifying organisms, was deeply intertwined with the prevailing religious and philosophical beliefs of the time. The Great Chain of Being, a concept stretching back to ancient Greece, was a dominant paradigm. It posited a hierarchical order of creation, from the simplest life forms at the bottom to God at the top, with humans placed just below the angels. This linear, static view of nature profoundly influenced early taxonomists, who sought to fit all species into a fixed, unchanging ladder.
However, as explorers ventured into new continents and returned with a dizzying array of previously unknown species, the limitations of this hierarchical framework became apparent. How could a three-dimensional, interconnected web of life be forced into a linear chain? The more species that were discovered, the more difficult it became to place them neatly into a single, vertical order. These new discoveries, particularly those from the “New World,” began to challenge the very foundation of the Great Chain of Being. The growing empirical evidence led to a shift away from a simple, linear classification toward a more complex, branching system. Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist who is often considered the “father of modern taxonomy,” was a key figure in this transition. His system of binomial nomenclature, which categorized species based on shared physical characteristics rather than on an abstract hierarchy, provided a much more flexible and adaptable framework.
While Linnaeus himself was a devout believer in the Great Chain of Being and saw his work as simply detailing its order, his system’s inherent flexibility ironically paved the way for later biological theories, such as evolution, that would completely dismantle the static hierarchy he sought to categorize. Thus, the very tools he developed to understand a fixed order became the means by which that order was ultimately shown to be dynamic and ever-changing.
The primary purpose of the passage is to:
According to the passage, the Great Chain of Being was a dominant paradigm for early taxonomists because it:
The author's reference to the "dizzying array of previously unknown species" serves to:
The passage suggests that Linnaeus's system of binomial nomenclature was "ironically" a key factor in dismantling the Great Chain of Being because:
Which of the following can be inferred about the prevailing religious and philosophical beliefs of the 17th century, as described in the passage?
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