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The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius: Selections Annotated and Explained Russell McNeil, PhD Editor, Malaspina Great Books In 1862 the English literary critic and poet Matthew Arnold described Marcus Aurelius as "the most beautiful figure in history." The Stoicism of Aurelius is grounded in rationality and rests solidly on an ethical approach rooted in nature. Stoicism promises real happiness and joy in this life and a serenity that can never be soured by personal misfortune. This philosophy has universal appeal with practical implications on problems ranging from climate change and terrorism to the personal management of sickness, aging, depression and addiction. I truly believe that the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius has much to offer us now...(Click on book cover for more)

Category:	Baroque Science
Name:	Carolus Linnaeus
Birth Year:	1707
Death Year:	1778
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Biography, Lectures, and Research Links:	Biography Blog Carolus Linnaeus SEARCH NOW: by title by author Carolus Linnaeus (or Carl von Linne) (May 23 1707-January 10 1778) was a Swedish scientist who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of taxonomy. As a boy Linnaeus was to be groomed for life as a churchman, as his father and maternal grandfather were, but he showed little enthusiasm for the profession. His interest in Botany, though, impressed a physician from his town and he was sent to study at the university of Lund, transferring to Uppsala after a year. During this time Linnaeus became convinced that in the stamens and pistils of flowers lay the basis for the classification of plants, and he wrote a short work on the subject that earned him the postion of adjunct professor. In 1732 the Academy of Sciences at Uppsala financed his expedition to explore Lapland, then virtually unknown. The result of this was the Flora Laponica published in 1737. Thereafter Linnaeus moved to the continent. While in the Netherlands he met Jan Frederik Gronovius and showed him a draft of his work on taxonomy, the Systema Naturae. In it, the unwieldy descriptions used previously - physalis amno ramosissime ramis angulosis glabris foliis dentoserratis - were replaced by the concise and now familiar genus-species names - Physalis angulata - and higher taxa were constructed in a simple and orderly manner. Linnaeus named taxa in ways that personally struck him as common-sensical; for example, human beings are Homo sapiens "wise man", but he also described a second human species, Homo troglodytes (or Homo nocturnus - "cave-dwelling man" or "nocturnal man"), by which he seems to have meant the only-recently described chimpanzee). The group "mammalia" are named for their breasts because he wanted to encourage women to breast-feed their infants. In 1739 Linnaeus married Sara Morea, daughter of a physician. He ascended the chair of medicine at Uppsala two years later, soon exchanging it for the chair of Botany. He continued to work on his classifications, extending them to the kingdom of animals and the kingdom of minerals. The last strikes us as somewhat odd, but evolution was still a long time away - and indeed, the Lutheran Linnaeus would have been horrified by it - and so Linnaeus was only attempting a convenient way of categorizing the natural world. He was knighted in 1755, under his Swedish name, Carl von Linné. Linnaeus' original botanical garden may still be seen in Uppsala. [This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License and uses material adapted in whole or in part from the Wikipedia article on Carolus Linnaeus.] The Great Books: Carolus Linnaeus Please browse our Amazon list of titles about Carolus Linnaeus. For rare and hard to find works we recommend our Alibris list of titles about Carolus Linnaeus. Post Comments, Questions or Suggestions! This database is maintained by Malaspina Great Books.
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Best Choice Books, Music, Art:	Select Dissertations from the Amoenitates Academicae Carl Linnaeus: Father of Classification Linnaeus : The Compleat Naturalist Linnaeus: Nature and Nation Linnaeus: The Man and His Work
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Records from Related Period and Category:	Baroque Science

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This web page is part of a biographical database on Great Ideas. These are living ideas that have shaped, defined and directed world culture for over 2,500 years. By definition the Great Ideas are radical. As such they are sometimes misread, or distorted by popular simplifications. Understanding a Great Idea demands personal engagement. Our selection of Great Ideas is drawn from literature and philosophy, science, art, music, theatre, and cinema. We also include biographies of pivotal historical and religious figures, as well as contributions from women and other historically under-represented minorities. The result is an integrated multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary database built upon the framework of the always controversial Great Books Core List published in 1940 by the late Great Books Pioneer Mortimer Adler (1902-2001). Most of the works on that list are available in the 60 volume Great Books of the Western World.