Linnaeus' apostles, scientific travel and the East India trade

• This paper discusses the significance of East India trade to scientific travel in the 18th century, focusing in particular on the so-called 'apostles' or travelling students of Linnaeus. On the one hand, enterprises such as the Swedish East India Company (SOIC) were of crucial importance by providing both incentives for natural history research and the necessary infrastructure for scientific travel. It is indeed difficult to imagine most of the apostles' expeditions without the framework of East India trade. On the other hand, there were also obvious limits to the willingness of the SOIC to actively sponsor research which was not immediately useful or profitable; such support was typically only given to travellers working on board as chaplains or surgeons, and only as long as it did not interfere with their regular duties. In this context, I briefly discuss the complicated relationship — in the 18th century no less than today — between two contrasting scientific ideals: one based on the notion of curiosity or the search for knowledge as an end in itself and the other fuelled by a belief that science is meaningless if it does not yield tangible benefits to human economy and society.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi -- Historia (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology -- History (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Filosofi, etik och religion -- Idé- och lärdomshistoria (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Philosophy, Ethics and Religion -- History of Ideas (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Linnaeus

apostles

SOIC

East India trade

scientific travel

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)