ABSTRACT

The history of scientific classification is, in the last analysis, the history of the stages by which affective element of social affectivity has progressively weakened, leaving more and more room for the reflective thought of individuals. Primitive Classifications are therefore not singular or exceptional, having no analogy with those employed by more civilized peoples; on the contrary, they seem to be connected, with no break in continuity, to the first scientific classifications. Society was not simply a model which classificatory thought followed; it was its own divisions which served as divisions for the system of classification. From the fact that the external form of the classification was furnished by society, it does not necessarily follow that the way in which the framework was used is due to reasons of the same origin. Things were thought to be integral parts of society, and it was their place in society which determined their place in nature.