The Great Chain of Being

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The Great Chain of Being

• Medieval metaphor illustrating hierarchy of being
  from God to the lowliest non-being
• Chain stretched from foot of Gods throne to the
  tiniest particle of sand a place for everything,
  and everything in its place

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Hierarchy

• Top of chain represents perfectionGod, according
  to Medieval Christian thinking
• Every living and unliving thing had its place,
  its role and its natural way of being

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Angels

• Just below God
• Had reason and spirit, but no body
• With no body, did not die
• Could fall by free will (so devil was fallen
  angel)

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Man in the Hierarchy

• Just below the angels
• Could aspire to greater perfection (angelic or
  god-like)
• Had reason in common with angels
• Had body (mortality), unlike angels had feeling,
  understanding
• Incorporated features of lower classesthus a
  microcosm
• Could fall to the level of beast (free will)

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Higher Sensitive Class

• Below human (no reason no soul)
• Hierarchy within each subset Highest mammal?
  Highest fish? Highest bird?
• What specialties would various animals have that
  human beings do not have?

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Lower Sensitive class

• Have life and feeling
• Creatures having touch but no feeling or memory
  (parasites or shellfish, for example)
• Creatures having movement but not hearing, such
  as ants

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Vegetative Class

• Existence and life, but no feeling,
  understanding, movement
• Highest tree?
• Highest flower?

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Inanimate

• Elements, liquids and metals
• No sensation, but durable for centuries
• Water higher than earth
• Four elements earth, air, fire, water
• Highest mineral?

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Order and Chaos

• So long as every member of every class followed
  its specialty, stayed within its realm, order
  reigned in a sort of cosmic dance
• Which being would violate this order, do you
  suppose?

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Disruption

• Once man disrupted the order through sin or
  crime
• This unnatural disturbance shook the chain and
  disrupted every other class, especially if the
  human was high in his class (king or prince)

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In the Meantime

• Chaos-disorder-corruption is reflected in all
  other realms (spirits wandering corruption
  madness)
• Order must be restored
• Truth must be revealed

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Elizabethan to Modern

• This medieval view of order was coming under
  question with scientific discoveries, but it
  continues to be implied in literature
• Brief reference to one part of this world view
  implies the entire chain of being and its
  implications
• Vestiges of the chain and its underlying
  philosophy persist (DNA visual from science blog)

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Modern Variations

• This came from a current spiritual website
  (www.cacradicalgrace.org/conferences/gcob )
• Sets out idea of interrelationships in
  ecology-environment
• Simplicity-balance