Editing Great chain of being

{{Short description|Cosmological hierarchy of all matter and life}}
{{For|the song|The Great Chain of Being (song)}}
[[File:Great Chain of Being 2.png|thumb|upright=1.35|1579 drawing of the Great Chain of Being from {{ill|Didacus Valades|es|Diego de Valadés}}, ''Rhetorica Christiana'']]

The '''great chain of being''' is a hierarchical structure of all matter and life, thought by medieval [[Christianity]] to have been decreed by [[God]]. The chain begins with God and descends through [[angel]]s, [[Human|humans]], [[Animal|animals]] and [[Plant|plants]] to [[mineral]]s.{{sfn|Lovejoy|1960|p=59}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Adams |first1=Robert Merrihew |title=Leibniz: Determinist, Theist, Idealist |date=1999 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |page=113}}</ref><ref name="Tillyard Web">{{cite web |last1=Wheeler |first1=L. Kip |title=The Chain of Being: Tillyard in a Nutshell |url=https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/Tillyard01.html |publisher=Carson-Newman University |access-date=16 November 2019 |archive-date=16 December 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031216234914/https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/Tillyard01.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The great chain of being ({{ety|la|'''scala naturae'''|ladder of being}}) is a concept derived from [[Plato]], [[Aristotle]] (in his ''[[Historia Animalium]]''), [[Plotinus]] and [[Proclus]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Great Chain of Being {{!}} Definition, Origin & Facts|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Great-Chain-of-Being|access-date=April 1, 2021|website=[[Britannica]]|archive-date=June 24, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150624160032/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Great-Chain-of-Being|url-status=live}}</ref> Further developed during the [[Middle Ages]], it reached full expression in early modern [[Neoplatonism]].<ref>"This idea of a great chain of being can be traced to Plato's division of the world into the Forms, which are full beings, and sensible things, which are imitations of the Forms and are both being and not being. Aristotle's teleology recognized a perfect being, and he also arranges all animals by a single natural scale according to the degree of perfection of their souls. The idea of the great chain of being was fully developed in Neoplatonism and in the Middle Ages.", Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy, p. 289 (2004)</ref><ref>Edward P. Mahoney, "Lovejoy and the Hierarchy of Being", ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' Vol. 48, No 2, pp. 211-230.</ref>

== Divisions ==
The chain of being hierarchy has God at the top,<ref>{{cite book |last=Lovejoy |first=Arthur O. |author-link=Arthur Lovejoy |title=The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea |date=1936 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, MA |page=60 |isbn=978-0-674-36153-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/greatchainofbein0000love_b9m4/page/60/mode/2up}}</ref> above angels, which like him are entirely [[Spirit (animating force)|spirit]], without material bodies, and hence [[immutability (theology)|unchangeable]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lovejoy |first1=Arthur O. |author-link=Arthur Lovejoy |title=The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea |date=1936 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, MA |page=80 |isbn=978-0-674-36153-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/greatchainofbein0000love_b9m4/page/60/mode/2up}}</ref> Beneath them are humans, consisting both of spirit and matter; they change and die, and are thus essentially impermanent.{{sfn|Tillyard|1943|p=26}} Lower are animals and plants. At the bottom are the mineral materials of the earth itself; they consist only of matter. Thus, the higher the being is in the chain, the more attributes it has, including all the attributes of the beings below it.{{sfn|Tillyard|1943|pp=25–26}} The minerals are, in the medieval mind, a possible exception to the [[immutability (theology)|immutability]] of the material beings in the chain, as [[alchemy]] promised to turn lower elements like [[lead]] into those higher up the chain, like [[silver]] or [[gold]].{{sfn|Tillyard|1943|p=59}}

== The Great Chain ==
The Great Chain of being links God, angels, humans, animals, plants, and minerals.<ref name="Tillyard Web"/> The links of the chain are:

=== God ===
God is the creator of all things. Many religions, such as [[Judaism]], [[Christianity]], and [[Islam]] believe he created the entire universe and everything in it. He has spiritual attributes found in angels and humans. God has unique attributes of [[omnipotence]], [[omnipresence]], and [[omniscience]]. He is the model of perfection in all of creation.<ref name="Tillyard Web"/>

=== Angelic beings ===
{{Further|Christian angelology}}

In the [[New Testament]], the [[Epistle to the Colossians]] sets out a partial list: "everything visible and everything invisible, Thrones, Dominations, Sovereignties, Powers – all things were created through him and for him."<ref name="Colossians">[[Epistle to the Colossians]] 1:15-20</ref> The [[Epistle to the Ephesians]] also lists several entities: "Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come".<ref name="Ephesians">[[Epistle to the Ephesians]] 1:21</ref>

In the 5th and 6th centuries, [[Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite]] set out a more elaborate hierarchy, consisting of three lists, each of three types:<ref name="Price 2021">{{cite web |last1=Price |first1=Kitty |title=The Hierarchy of Angels |url=https://www.portsmouthcathedral.org.uk/sermons-lectures-and-talks/archive/ppg4stmyr92zw9gzf4rcbe65srttnw |publisher=Portsmouth Cathedral |access-date=8 December 2023 |date=26 September 2021 |archive-date=8 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231208094210/https://www.portsmouthcathedral.org.uk/sermons-lectures-and-talks/archive/ppg4stmyr92zw9gzf4rcbe65srttnw |url-status=live }}</ref>

{{multiple image
 | width = 140
 | image1 = Nine orders of angels.jpeg
 | caption1 = [[Eastern Orthodox]] icon of [[Christian angelology|nine orders of angels]]
 | image2 = Die Leiter des Auf- und Abstiegs.jpg
 | caption2 = The mediaeval ''scala naturae'' as a staircase, implying the [[orthogenesis|possibility of progress]]:<ref>{{cite book |last=Ruse |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Ruse |date=1996 |title=Monad to man: the Concept of Progress in Evolutionary Biology |url=https://archive.org/details/monadtomanconcep0000ruse |url-access=registration |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-03248-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/monadtomanconcep0000ruse/page/21 21]–23}}</ref> [[Ramon Llull]]'s ''Ladder of Ascent and Descent of the Mind'', 1305
 | footer = 
}}

* Angels of presence, praising God
** [[Seraphim]] – spirits of love
** [[Cherubim]] – spirits of harmony
** [[Throne (angel)|Thrones]]<ref name="Colossians"/> – record keepers of universal laws
* Angels of government, spreading light
** [[Dominion (angel)|Dominions]]<ref name="Colossians"/><ref name="Ephesians"/> – spirits of wisdom and knowledge
** [[Angels in Christianity#Virtues|Virtues]] – angels of movement and [[Free will in theology|free will]]
** [[Powers (angel)|Powers]]<ref name="Colossians"/><ref name="Ephesians"/> – angels of form and space
* Angels of revelation, able to communicate with humans
** [[Principality (angel)|Principalities]]<ref name="Ephesians"/> – angels of time and personality
** [[Archangel]]s – powerful angels superior to ordinary angels
** [[Angel]]s – governors of spirits of nature

=== Humanity ===
Humans uniquely share spiritual attributes with God and the angels above them, [[love]] and language, and physical attributes with the animals below them, like having material bodies that experienced emotions and sensations such as lust and pain, and physical needs such as hunger and thirst.<ref name="Tillyard Web"/>

[[File:BonnetChain.jpg|thumb|[[Charles Bonnet]]'s chain of being from ''Traité d'insectologie'', 1745]]<!--very long image-->

=== Animals ===
Animals have senses, are able to move, and have physical appetites. The [[apex predator]] like the [[lion]], could move vigorously, and has powerful senses like keen eyesight and the ability to smell their prey from a distance, while a lower order of animals might wiggle or crawl, or like [[oyster]]s were sessile, attached to the sea-bed. All, however, share the senses of touch and taste.<ref name="Tillyard Web"/>

=== Plants ===
Plants lacked sense organs and the ability to move, but they could grow and reproduce. The highest plants have important healing attributes within their leaves, buds, and flowers.<ref name="Tillyard Web"/> 
Lower plants included [[fungi]] and [[moss]]es.<ref name="Tillyard Web"/>

=== Minerals ===
At the bottom of the chain, minerals were unable to move, sense, grow, or reproduce. Their attributes were being solid and strong, while the gemstones possessed magic. The king of gems was the [[diamond]].<ref name="Tillyard Web"/>

== Natural science ==

=== From Aristotle to Linnaeus ===
{{Further|Aristotle's biology#Classification}}

The basic idea of a ranking of the world's organisms goes back to [[Aristotle's biology]]. In his ''[[History of Animals]]'', where he ranked animals over plants based on their ability to move and sense, and graded the animals by their reproductive mode, live birth being "higher" than laying cold eggs, and possession of blood, warm-blooded mammals and birds again being "higher" than "bloodless" invertebrates.{{sfn|Leroi|2014|pages=111–119}}

Aristotle's non-religious concept of higher and lower organisms was taken up by [[natural philosophers]] during the [[scholasticism|Scholastic period]] to form the basis of the ''Scala Naturae''. The ''scala'' allowed for an ordering of beings, thus forming a basis for classification where each kind of mineral, plant and animal could be slotted into place. In medieval times, the great chain was seen as a God-given and unchangeable ordering. In the [[Northern Renaissance]], the scientific focus shifted to biology; the threefold division of the chain below humans formed the basis for [[Carl Linnaeus]]'s ''[[Systema Naturæ]]'' from 1737, where he divided the physical components of the world into the three familiar [[Kingdom (biology)|kingdoms]] of minerals, plants and animals.<ref name="Linn1758" >{{cite book |first=Carl |last=Linnaeus |author-link=Carl Linnaeus |title=Systema naturae |publisher=Laurentius Salvius |location=Stockholm |date=1758 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/542 |language=la |edition=[[10th edition of Systema Naturae|10th edition]] |access-date=2018-01-13 |archive-date=2008-10-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081010032456/http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/542 |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== In alchemy ===
[[Alchemy]] used the great chain as the basis for its cosmology. Since all beings were linked into a chain, so that there was a fundamental unity of all [[matter]], the transformation from one place in the chain to the next might, according to alchemical reasoning, be possible. In turn, the unit of the matter enabled alchemy to make another key assumption, the [[philosopher's stone]], which somehow gathered and concentrated the universal spirit found in all matter along the chain, and which ''[[ex hypothesi]]'' might enable the alchemical transformation of one substance to another, such as the base metal [[lead]] to the noble metal [[gold]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=O'Gorman |first1=Frank |last2=Donald |first2=Diana |title=Ordering the World in the Eighteenth Century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gSaBDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA63 |year=2005 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-0-230-51888-9 |pages=63–82 |access-date=2019-05-09 |archive-date=2024-10-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241002224412/https://books.google.com/books?id=gSaBDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA63#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== ''Scala Naturae'' in evolution ===
{{further|Orthogenesis}}

[[File:Human pedigree.jpg|thumb|upright|left|The human pedigree [[recapitulation theory|recapitulating its phylogeny]] back to [[amoeba]] shown as a reinterpreted chain of being with living and [[fossil]] animals. From a critique of [[Ernst Haeckel]]'s theories, 1873.]]

The set nature of species, and thus the absoluteness of creatures' places in the great chain, came into question during the 18th century. The dual nature of the chain, divided yet united, had always allowed for seeing creation as essentially one continuous whole, with the potential for overlap between the links.{{sfn|Lovejoy|1960|p=59}} Radical thinkers like [[Jean-Baptiste Lamarck]] saw a progression of life forms from the simplest creatures striving towards complexity and perfection, a schema accepted by zoologists like [[Henri de Blainville]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Appel |first=T.A. |title=Henri De Blainville and the Animal Series: A Nineteenth-Century Chain of Being |journal=Journal of the History of Biology |date=1980 |volume=13 | issue = 2 |pages=291–319 |jstor=4330767 |doi=10.1007/BF00125745|s2cid=83708471 }}</ref> The very idea of an ordering of organisms, even if supposedly fixed, laid the basis for the idea of [[transmutation of species]], whether progressive goal-directed [[orthogenesis]] or [[Charles Darwin]]'s undirected theory of [[evolution]].<ref name=Snyder>{{cite web |url=http://faculty.grandview.edu/ssnyder/121/121%20great%20chain.htm |title=The Great Chain of Being |website=Grandview.edu |author=Snyder, S. |access-date=2017-01-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170728101006/http://faculty.grandview.edu/ssnyder/121/121%20great%20chain.htm |archive-date=2017-07-28 |url-status=dead }}</ref>{{sfn|Lovejoy|1960|pp=325-326}}

The chain of being continued to be part of [[metaphysics]] in 19th-century education, and the concept was well known. The geologist [[Charles Lyell]] used it as a metaphor in his 1851 ''Elements of Geology'' description of the [[Geologic time scale|geological column]], where he used the term "[[Transitional fossil#Missing links|missing links]]" about missing parts of the continuum. The term "missing link" later came to signify [[transitional fossil]]s, particularly those bridging the gulf between man and beasts.<ref name="hm">{{cite web |url=http://www.hoxfulmonsters.com/2009/06/why-the-term-missing-links-is-inappropriate/ |title=Why the term "missing links" is inappropriate |date=10 June 2009 |publisher=Hoxful Monsters |access-date=10 September 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402093028/http://www.hoxfulmonsters.com/2009/06/why-the-term-missing-links-is-inappropriate/ |archive-date=2 April 2012 }}</ref>

The idea of the great chain, as well as the derived "missing link", was abandoned in early 20th-century science,<ref name=Prothero2008>{{cite journal |last=Prothero |first=Donald R. |author-link=Donald Prothero |date=1 March 2008 |title=Evolution: What missing link? |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19726451.700-evolution-what-missing-link.html?full=true |journal=[[New Scientist]] |issue=2645 |pages=35–41 |access-date=4 August 2018 |doi=10.1016/s0262-4079(08)60548-5 |volume=197 |archive-date=23 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523045311/https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19726451-700-evolution-what-missing-link/?ignored=irrelevant |url-status=live }}</ref> as the notion of [[Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny|modern animals representing ancestors of other modern animals]] was abandoned in biology, to be replaced by an [[Phylogenetic tree|evolutionary tree]] supplemented by [[horizontal gene transfer]], as well as more complex [[Food web|web structures]].<ref name=Ehrlich1963>{{cite book | last1=Ehrlich | first1=Paul R. |author2=Holm, R. W. |author1-link=Paul R. Ehrlich | title=The process of evolution | url=https://archive.org/details/processofevoluti00ehrl | publisher=McGraw-Hill | location=New York | year=1963 | isbn=978-0-07-019130-3 | oclc=255345 | page=[https://archive.org/details/processofevoluti00ehrl/page/66 66]}}</ref> The idea of a certain sequence from lower to higher complexity and fitness is still popular, as is the idea of [[orthogenesis|progress in biology]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Ruse |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Ruse |date=1996 |title=Monad to man: the Concept of Progress in Evolutionary Biology |url=https://archive.org/details/monadtomanconcep0000ruse |url-access=registration |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-03248-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/monadtomanconcep0000ruse/page/432 432]–433, and passim}}</ref>{{clear|left}}

== Political implications ==
Allenby and Garreau propose that the Catholic Church's narrative of the great chain of being kept the peace in Europe for centuries. The very concept of rebellion simply lay outside the reality within which most people lived, for to defy the King was to defy God. King James I himself wrote, "The state of monarchy is the most supreme thing upon earth: for kings are not only God's Lieutenants upon earth, and sit upon God's throne, but even by God himself they are called Gods."<ref name=Snyder/>

== Adaptations and similar concepts ==
The American philosopher [[Ken Wilber]] described a "Great Nest of Being" which he claims to belong to a culture-independent "[[perennial philosophy]]" traceable across 3000 years of mystical and esoteric writings. Wilber's system corresponds with other concepts of [[transpersonal psychology]].<ref>{{cite journal |author=Freeman, Anthony |date=2006 |title=A Daniel Come to Judgement? Dennett and the Revisioning of Transpersonal Theory |journal=[[Journal of Consciousness Studies]] |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=95–109 |url=http://www.imprint.co.uk/pdf/13-3_Freeman.pdf |access-date=July 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120813003002/http://www.imprint.co.uk/pdf/13-3_Freeman.pdf |archive-date=August 13, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In his 1977 book ''[[A Guide for the Perplexed]]'', the economist [[E. F. Schumacher]] described a hierarchy of beings, with humans at the top able [[Mindfulness|mindfully]] to perceive the "eternal now".<ref>{{cite book |last=Costello |first=Stephen |title=Philosophy and the Flow of Presence |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YtcxBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA100 |year=2014 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-4438-6454-1 |pages=100–101 |access-date=2019-11-18 |archive-date=2024-10-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241002224413/https://books.google.com/books?id=YtcxBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA100#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Columns-list|colwidth=30em|
* [[Figurative system of human knowledge]]
* [[History of biology]]
* ''[[The Ladder of Divine Ascent]]''
* [[Level of organization]]
* [[Natural history]]
* [[Plane (esotericism)]]
* [[Social stratification]]
* [[Sphere of fire]]
}}

== References ==

{{Reflist|28em}}

=== Works cited ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Leroi |first=Armand Marie |author-link=Armand Marie Leroi |title=The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science |publisher=Bloomsbury |date=2014 |isbn=978-1-4088-3622-4 }}
* {{cite book |last=Lovejoy |first=Arthur O. |author-link=Arthur Lovejoy |title=The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea |publisher=Harper |date=1960 |orig-year=1936 <!--Harvard U.P.--> }}
* {{cite book |author-link=E. M. W. Tillyard |last=Tillyard |first=E. M. W. |title=The Elizabethan World Picture: A Study of the Idea of Order in the age of Shakespeare, Donne & Milton |year=1943 |publisher=Chatto & Windus |location=London}}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==

{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=DuBois |first=P. |year=1991 |title=Centaurs and Amazons: Women and the Pre-History of the Great Chain of Being |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-0-472-08153-0 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |first=Miguel |last=Espinoza |title=La Hiérarchie naturelle. Matière, vie, conscience et symbole |publisher=L'Harmattan |place=Paris |year=2022 |isbn=978-2-14-030999-1 |lang=fr |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Jensen |first=D. |year=2016 |title=The Myth of Human Supremacy |publisher=Seven Stories Press |isbn=978-1-60980-678-1 |ref=none}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
* [http://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=DicHist/uvaBook/tei/DicHist1.xml;chunk.id=dv1-45;toc.depth=100;toc.id=dv1-45 ''Dictionary of the History of Ideas''] – Chain of Being
* [http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/courses/re/chain.htm The Great Chain of Being reflected in the work of Descartes, Spinoza & Leibniz]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828222349/http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/courses/re/chain.htm |date=2008-08-28}}. Peter Suber, [[Earlham College]], [[Indiana]]

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Alchemical concepts]]
[[Category:Aristotelianism]]
[[Category:Christian philosophy]]
[[Category:Esoteric Christianity]]
[[Category:Hierarchy]]
[[Category:Jewish mysticism]]
[[Category:Metaphysics of religion]]
[[Category:Natural philosophy]]
[[Category:Neoplatonism]]
[[Category:Obsolete biology theories]]
[[Category:Philosophical theories]]