Disciplining botany: a taxonomic problem

Summary Smocovitis, V. B.: Disciplining botany: a taxonomic problem. — Taxon 41: 459‐470. 1992. — ISSN 0040‐0262. This article offers historical and philosophical perspectives on the debate generated by the proposed name change of the Botanical Society of America. Historical and philosophical examination of the lives of disciplines like botany reveal a process of ordering and systematization analogous to botanical practices. The taxonomist of knowledge like the taxonomist of plants constructs categories or groupings which are provisional constructs of the disciplined “eye” of the taxonomist. The emergence of botany — a category or “branch” of knowledge — has been disciplined as such a category, and along with it has come the contentious issue of proper accurate naming of the practice. The “growth” of botany — especially in America — is examined through a re‐examination of representations of the “trees of knowledge”.