Download chain of being

“The Great Chain of Being”
Persists in Modern Background
Great Chain of Being: Levels
 God
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existence + life + will + reason + immortality + omniscience,
omnipotence
 Angels
 existence + life + will + reason + immortality
 Humanity
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existence + life + will + reason
 Animals
 existence + life + will
 Plants
 existence + life
 Matter
 existence
 Nothingness
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Social Significance of G.C.B.
MORALS
 It is a moral imperative for each creature to know its
place in the Chain of Being and fulfill its own function
without trying to rise above its station or lowering
itself by behavior proper to the lower links in the
chain.
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A human who eats like a pig, or as randy as goat, has allowed the lower,
animal instincts in his nature to override his awareness of God's divine will.
Fleshly or carnal sin, and he denies spiritual aspect of his nature.
Likewise, a human who attempts to rise above his social rank does so
through arrogance, pride, or envy of his betters. Here, the error is an
intellectual or spiritual sin.
Social Significance of G.C.B.
POLITICS
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Monarchical government was ordained by God and inherent in the very structure
of the universe.
Rebellion against a king was not challenging the state; it was an act against the
will of God itself, for a king was God's appointed deputy on earth, with semidivine powers.
At the same time, a monarch had the moral responsibility to serve God and
protect his subjects. In return for absolute power, a king was expected to rule
with love, wisdom, and justice.
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To do otherwise was to abandon those natural qualities that make a monarch fit to rule
in the first place.
Misusing royal authority was a perversion of divine order just as rebellion against royal
authority.
In theory, there were two classes of people: Nobles and Commoners. In practice,
there are a many gradations of both classes. These gradations, or class levels, were
also thought of as parts of a Great Chain of Being, which extended from God down to
the lowest forms of life, through the class structure of society and even to the trees and
stones of the earth.
Social Significance of G.C.B.
SCIENCE
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Medieval and Renaissance science influenced by the idea that physical world
reflected God’s ordained will. In astronomy, for example, orbits of the planets
were mathematically perfect circles (as a perfect God would not produce
imperfectly orbiting bodies).
Earth was center of these circles, which ascended planet by planet to
the primum mobile, the realm of God's eternally-unchanging perfection.
Copernican revolution in astronomy came about within the framework of the
Great Chain of Being rather than in spite of it.
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Earth-centered model for planetary rotation isn't all bad.
Astronomers can predict events in the heavens.
However, by late Middle ages the Ptolemaic theory had reached terminal complexity,
and it seemed unlikely to Copernicus that God would make such an unlovely, overly
complex universe.
So what if the Earth weren't at the center of the universe?
Note that Ptolemy was legitimately scientific—not a religious concept but a
physical model of universal motion.
Social Significance of G.C.B.
RELIGION
 God the centre and
culmination of all
aspects of … well, of
everything.
 The great Chain of
Being, harmonising
with Ptolemaic
cosmology, is
powerful+accessible
visual support
The Great Chain of Being
Today?
Overthrow of Ptolemy
 By the 16th Century, technological advances in optics
produced mutually-supporting advances in
mathematics, geometry. For example:
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1608: Hans Lippershey, first refracting telescope
1624: William Oughtred invents the slide rule
 Brahe, Kepler, Copernicus, Galileo: major 16th C. figures
who worked from observations and calculations that these
technological advances made possible to derive a model
of planetary motion which simplified & rationalised a
persuasive replacement for ptolemy.
 Radically altered the social conception of TRUTH
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Truth became ‘the simpler & more elegant physical model’
Nature in the Romantics’ Vision
Nature in the Romantics’ Vision
The Romantic sentiment.
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
….Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:-We murder to dissect.
Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.