Biology Before Darwin: Crash Course History of Science #19

You’ve probably heard of Charles Darwin, but before we get to him, you really need to understand how different people, throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, tried to answer the same question: “what is life?”

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[alixinthemiddle]

it's weird to think about not knowing things. it's weird how much knowledge we take for granted.

[OlleLindestad]

5:43 "Linnaeus was called the Second Adam"

Yeah, he... made up that title himself. He also called himself Princeps Botanicorum, the "Prince of Botany", and coined the adage "God created; Linnaeus classified". He was a fairly smug dude. :P

[NotHPotter]

I think the most surprising thing about this whole series is which fields of study came first, and how studying one aspect of the world unexpectedly leads to paradigm shifts in seemingly distant, unrelated fields.

[Teo]

Please never stop educating me. I've discovered a thirst for knowledge and with your help I'm able to gather and learn so much faster than if I were on my own. Thank you.

[hippityhoppity]

what are you in for?
- studying plants
*backs away*

[curtiswilson]

This series is so captivating! I especially LOVE that y’all bring up influential female scientists and natural philosophers in every episode. So many amazing women that were left out of the history books I’ve read!

[herodotus]

I would like to thank CrashCourse and everyone in it for these great videos. In a local Catholic school near me they often use this videos to make learning more fun.

[rafaelalodio]

As an almost biologist I really enjoyed this video, really well explained and edited.

[billj]

Nothing against peasants, but Lamarck wasn't one. He was the eleventh child of a relatively poor but aristocratic family from Picardy. Toffs in pre-Revolutionary France had incredibly long names, and Lamarck's full name was in fact Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck.

[陈瑞娜]

Wow! I didn't expect this, but Crash Course really heard our suggestions:
Hank talks more slowly and his vocals are better! Thanks, CC!

[Dahxelb]

It's not often I can say this seriously, but when I started watching this video, I did not expect the Spanish Inquisition.

puns aside, great video as always. Love these series.

[adamlatosinski]

I didn't expect Spanish inquisition to appear in this video.

[futureDK]

Love the History Of Science CC! Your best production yet. Or is it Hank hosting.

[MultiDonald]

Last time I was this early, biology was still natural history

[MasterOfCydonia]

I love this, I truly love science, and I find your Crash Course episodes to be amazing, but can we please get a Crash Course in Archaeology? Why? Because Human History is awesome, and the study of it is even more awesome.

[MrJuuustin]

Awesome! It's like plugging a USB into my brain and downloading useful data of everything.

[SlipperyTeeth]

Bonus information:
Linnaeus tried to do binomial nomenclature because the English bible mentions living things as "kinds". So, he started by finding out where the lines lie separating kind from kind. He soon found out that life is far more complex than that and used more levels of classification to categorize it. If I remember correctly, he ended up with 6 levels, and more were added after his death. Of course even that is far too simplistic to classify all of life. Serious biologists now use cladistics.

[mdevres]

Khedive of Egypt, not "Pasha" of Egypt. Although the khedive was named Mehmet Ali Pasha, so I understand the confusion.

[MichaelSHartman]

Most informative. Would have enjoyed a continuation. Thanks.

[spark-void]

This is what I watch when my parents tell me to study. A nice good old hour of CC!