1579 drawing of the great chain of being from Didacus Valades, Rhetorica Christiana

The great chain of being or scala naturæ is a classical and western medieval conception of the order of the universe, whose chief characteristic is a strict hierarchical system. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (525x765, 198 KB)PNG version of GIF uploaded by User:Duncharris because of age File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (525x765, 198 KB)PNG version of GIF uploaded by User:Duncharris because of age File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Events January 6 - The Union of Atrecht united the southern Netherlands under the Duke of Parma, governor in the name of king Philip II of Spain. ... Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, which begins roughly with the earliest-recorded Greek poetry of Homer (7th century BC), and continues through the rise of Christianity and the fall of the Western Roman Empire (5th century AD... The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. ...

It is a conception of the world's structure that was accepted, and unquestioned, by most educated men from the time of Lucretius until the Copernican and Darwinian revolution and the ultimate flowering of the Renaissance. The chain of being is composed of a great number of hierarchal links, from the most basic and foundational elements up through the very highest perfection, in other words, God, or the Prime Mover. == ... Heliocentric Solar System Heliocentrism (lower panel) in comparsion to the geocentric model (upper panel) In astronomy, heliocentrism is the belief that the Sun is at the center of the Universe and/or the Solar System. ... Charles Darwin Darwinism is a term for the underlying theory in those ideas of Charles Darwin concerning evolution and natural selection. ... For other uses, see Renaissance (disambiguation). ... This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... For the philosophical/theological concept of a prime mover (that is, a self-existent being that is the ultimate cause or mover of all things), see cosmological argument. ...

God, and beneath him the angels, both existing wholly in spirit form, sit at the top of the ladder. Earthly flesh is fallible and ever-changing: mutable. Spirit, however, is unchanging and permanent. This sense of permanence is crucial to understanding this conception of reality. One does not abandon one's place in the chain; it is not only unthinkable, but generally impossible. (One exception might be in the realm of alchemy, where alchemists attempted to transmute base elements, such as lead, into higher elements, either silver, or more often, gold—the highest element.) The Annunciation - the Angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will bear Jesus (El Greco, 1575) An angel is a supernatural being found in many religions. ... In the history of science, alchemy refers to both an early form of the investigation of nature and an early philosophical and spiritual discipline, both combining elements of chemistry, metallurgy, physics, medicine, astrology, semiotics, mysticism, spiritualism, and art. ... For PB or pb as an abbreviation, see PB. General Name, Symbol, Number lead, Pb, 82 Chemical series poor metals Group, Period, Block 14, 6, p Appearance bluish white Atomic mass 207. ... General Name, Symbol, Number silver, Ag, 47 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 5, d Appearance lustrous white metal Atomic mass 107. ... General Name, Symbol, Number gold, Au, 79 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 6, d Appearance metallic yellow Atomic mass 196. ...

In the natural order, earth (rock) is at the bottom of the chain; these elements possess only the attribute of existence. Moving on up the chain, each succeeding link contains the positive attributes of the previous link, and adds (at least) one other. Rocks, as above, possess only existence; the next link up, plants, possess life and existence. Beasts add not only motion, but appetite as well.

Man is a special instance in this conception. He is both mortal flesh, as those below him, and also spirit. In this dichotomy, the struggle between flesh and spirit becomes a moral one. The way of the spirit is higher, more noble; it brings one closer to God. The desires of the flesh drag one down. The Christian fall of Lucifer is especially terrible, because that angel is wholly spirit, who yet defies God, the ultimate perfection. This article is about the star or fallen angel. ...

Diagram

The purpose of the great chain of being was to assign a place for everything in the universe, classified into either:

• holy
• animal
• vegetable
• mineral

Example: If one were to examine only the earthly inhabitants, and their place in the chain, this is what would be found:

• god
• angels
• humans
• birds
• fish
• mammals (&peasants)
• plants
• rocks

The concept of "animal, vegetable, and mineral" still survives and is a feature of many Western philosophies and cultures to this day, and importantly made up the "three kingdoms" of Carolus Linnaeus's taxonomic system. Carolus Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as  , (May 23, 1707 – January 10, 1778), was a Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist[1] who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of nomenclature. ... Look up taxonomy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Other subdivisions

Each link in the chain might be further divided into its component parts. In medieval secular society, for example, the king is at the top, followed by the aristocratic lords, and then the peasants below them. Solidifying the king's position at the top of humanity's social order is the doctrine of the divine right of kings. In the family, the father is head of the household; below him, his wife; below her, their children. The children might be subdivided so that the males are one link above the females. The Divine Right of Kings is a European political and religious doctrine of political absolutism. ...

Modern western culture maintains some of these divisions. Just as Milton's Paradise Lost ranked the angels (c.f. Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite's ranking of angels), so Christian culture conceives of angels in orders of archangels, seraphim, and cherubim, among others. The lion is still king of light. Title page of the first edition Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. ... Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, also known as pseudo-Denys, is the name scholars have given to an anonymous theologian and philosopher of the 5th century, who wrote a collection of books, the Corpus Areopagiticum, falsely ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite, mentioned in Acts 17:34. ... An archangel is a supernatural being of Zoroastrian Persian, Judaic, Christian, and Islamic theology, counted among the angels. ... 六翼天使 Seraphim(六翼天使) is a Taiwanese symphonic metal band similar to Nightwish and Therion. ... A cherub (Hebrew כרוב; plural cherubim, כרובים) is an angelic creature mentioned several times in the Tanakh, or Old Testament, and in the Book of Revelation. ... Binomial name Panthera leo (Linnaeus, 1758) Synonyms Felis leo (Linnaeus, 1758) The lion (Panthera leo) is a mammal of the family Felidae and one of four big cats in the genus Panthera. ...

Amongst animals, subdivisions are equally apparent. At the top of the animals are wild beasts, who were seen as superior as they defied training and domestication. Below them are domestic animals, further sub-divided so that useful animals (such as dogs and horses) are higher than docile creature such as sheep. Birds are also sub-divided, with eagles above pigeons, for example. Fish come below birds, and are sub-divided between actual fish and other sea creatures which are abhorred in the Bible. Below them come insects, with useful insects such spiders and bees, and attractive creatures such as ladybirds and dragonflies at the top, and unpleasant insects such as flies and beetles at the bottom. At the very bottom of the animal sector are snakes, which are relegated to this position as punishment for the serpent's actions in the Garden of Eden. Trinomial name Canis lupus familiaris The dog is a mammal in the order Carnivora. ... horse, see Horse (disambiguation). ... Species See text. ... For other meanings of bird, see bird (disambiguation). ... Genera Several, see below. ... Pigeon redirects here. ... A giant grouper at the Georgia Aquarium Fish are aquatic vertebrates that are typically cold-blooded; covered with scales, and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins. ... The word Bible refers to the canonical collections of sacred writings of Judaism and Christianity. ... Orders Subclass Apterygota Symphypleona - globular springtails Subclass Archaeognatha (jumping bristletails) Subclass Dicondylia Monura - extinct Thysanura (common bristletails) Subclass Pterygota Diaphanopteroidea - extinct Palaeodictyoptera - extinct Megasecoptera - extinct Archodonata - extinct Ephemeroptera (mayflies) Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) Infraclass Neoptera Blattodea (cockroaches) Mantodea (mantids) Isoptera (termites) Zoraptera Grylloblattodea Dermaptera (earwigs) Plecoptera (stoneflies) Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets... Families Suborder Mesothelae     Liphistiidae (primitive burrowing spiders) Suborder Mygalomorphae     Atypidae (atypical tarantula)     Antrodiaetidae (folding trapdoor spider)     Mecicobothriidae (dwarf tarantulas)     Hexathelidae (venomous funnel-web tarantula)     Dipluridae (funnel-web tarantula)     Cyrtaucheniidae (wafer trapdoor spider)     Ctenizidae (trapdoor spider)     Theraphosidae (tarantula) Suborder Araneomorphae     Hypochilidae (lampshade spider)     Filistatidae (crevice weaver)     Sicariidae (recluse spider)     Scytodidae (spitting... Families Andrenidae Anthophoridae Apidae Colletidae Ctenoplectridae Halictidae Heterogynaidae Megachilidae Melittidae Oxaeidae Sphecidae Stenotritidae This article is about the insect. ... Subfamilies Chilocorinae Coccidulinae Coccinellinae Epilachninae Scymininae Sticholotidinae etc. ... Families Aeshnidae Austropetaliidae Cordulegastridae Corduliidae Gomphidae Libellulidae Neopetaliidae Petaluridae The dragonfly is an insect belonging to the Order Odonata, Suborder Anisoptera and characterized by large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings, and an elongated body. ... Suborders Nematocera Brachycera Dance fly male Empis tesselata The flesh fly, Sarcophaga carnaria Close-up of the head of a blow-fly. ... For other uses, see Beetle (disambiguation). ... Families Acrochordidae Aniliidae Anomalepididae Anomochilidae Atractaspididae Boidae Bolyeriidae Colubridae Cylindrophiidae Elapidae Hydrophiidae Leptotyphlopidae Loxocemidae Pythonidae Tropidophiidae Typhlopidae Uropeltidae Viperidae Xenopeltidae Snakes are cold blooded legless reptiles closely related to lizards, which share the order Squamata. ... The Fall of Man by Lucas Cranach, a 16th century German depiction of Eden The Garden of Eden (from Hebrew Gan Ä’den, גַּן עֵדֶן) is described in the Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man—Adam—and woman—Eve—lived after they were created by God. ...

Below animals comes the division for plants, which is further sub-divided. Trees are at the top, with useful trees such as oaks at the top, and the traditionally demonic yew tree at the bottom. Food-producing plants such as cereals and vegetables, further sub-divided. Binomial name Taxus baccata L. Taxus baccata is a conifer native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia. ... Cereal crops are mostly grasses cultivated for their edible seeds (actually a fruit called a grain, technically a caryopsis). ... Vegetables on a market Vegetable is a nutritional and culinary term denoting any part of a plant that is commonly consumed by humans as food, but is not regarded as a culinary fruit, nut, herb, spice, or grain. ...

At the very bottom of the chain are minerals. At the top of this section are metals (further sub-divided, with gold at the top), rocks (with granite and marble at the top), soil (sub-divided between nutrient-rich soil and low-quality types), sand, grit, dust, and dirt. A reference to the Great Chain of Being that survives in today's English language is the insult that one is "lower than dirt," which refers to dirt's place at the bottom of the Chain. Minerals are natural compounds formed through geological processes. ... General Name, Symbol, Number gold, Au, 79 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 6, d Appearance metallic yellow Atomic mass 196. ... The rocky side of a mountain creek near Orosí, Costa Rica. ... Quarrying granite for the Mormon Temple, Utah Territory. ... Venus de Milo, front. ... Loess field in Germany Soil horizons are formed by combined biological, chemical and physical alterations. ... For other uses, see Sand (disambiguation). ... Look up grit, GRIT, grits, GRITS in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... After just three years of use dust has blocked this laptop heat sink, making the computer unusable Dust is a general name for minute solid particles with diameters less than 500 micrometers (otherwise, see sand or granulates) and, more generally, for finely divided matter. ... Look up dirt in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The central concept of the chain of being is that everything imaginable fits into it somewhere, giving order and meaning to the universe.

References

• Arthur Lovejoy: The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea, (1936) ISBN 0-674-36153-9
• E. M. W. Tillyard: The Elizabethan World Picture (1942)
• William F. Bynum, "The Great Chain of Being after Forty Years: An Appraisal", History of Science 13 (1975): 1-28

Arthur Oncken Lovejoy (Berlin, October 10, 1873 - Baltimore, December 30, 1962) was an influential American intellectual historian, who founded the subdiscipline known as the history of ideas. Lovejoy was born in Berlin while his father was doing medical research there. ... Eustace Mandeville Wetenhall Tillyard (1889 –1962) was a British classical scholar and literary scholar. ...

See also

• History of biology
• Natural history

The history of biology dates as far back as the rise of various civilization as classic philosophers did their own ways of biology as a system of understanding life. ... Table of natural history, 1728 Cyclopaedia Natural history is an umbrella term for what are now usually viewed as several distinct scientific disciplines. ...

External links

• Dictionary of the History of Ideas – Chain of Being
• The Great Chain of Being reflected in the work of Descartes, Spinoza & Leibniz Peter Suber, Earlham College, Indiana