John_Ray

John Ray was a biologist who lived from 1627 until 1705. He published important works on plants, animals, and natural theology. His classification of plants in his Historia Plantarum was an important step towards modern taxonomy. Ray rejected the system of dichotomous division by which species were classified according to a pre-conceived, either/or type system, and instead classified plants according to similarities and differences that emergered from observation. Thus he advances scientific empiricism against the deductive rationalism of the scholastics.