February 13, 2005

The Great Chain of Being

The Great Chain of Being is a cultural model which places forms of being (forms of existence) on a vertical scale. Forms with certain properties are placed Ahigher@ on the scale than those with other properties, which are placed Alower.@ The view has a long history, from Plato and Aristotle, to Dante and Chaucer, to Shakespeare and Pope, to the present time B appearing now in a highly articulated version, the AExtended@ Great Chain of Being. The model is unconscious and the scale seems Anatural@ (166-167).

1. The Simple Great Chain B A Hierarchical View

The Simple version of the Great Chain of Being consists of a hierarchical view of the relation of human beings to Alower@ forms of existence. It is observational only. It is not causal in that it does not infer that beings at each level have an Aessence@ which leads to their behaviors. For instance, human behaviors are not necessarily a reflection of the unchangeable Aessence@ of humans. The view is also not prescriptive in that it does not imply that because higher levels have more power than lower levels, they should dominate these lower levels.

The place of a being on the scale depends on the highest property of that being. Thus, the definition of any level on the scale consists of the attributes which distinguish that level from the next lower one. These distinguishing attributes are beyond those possessed by forms of being at lower levels, in that they are:

a. Additional attributes B thoughts in humans and not animals.

b. More complex attributes B instincts in animals and not plants.

c. More powerful attributes B more powerful in enabling beings at that level to dominate those at lower levels (humans dominate dogs).

d. In general, attributes which are less accessible to our perception and understanding B thoughts are harder to understand than trees shedding their leaves (pp. 167-169).

The Scale:

Humans

Animals

Plants

Inanimate Substances

Complex Objects (a chair)

Natural Physical Things (a rock)

2. The Nature of Things B A Causal View

The Theory of the Nature of Things is a commonplace theory which links attributes to behavior in a causal manner. It reflects the conceptualization that each form of being has an Aessence@ which leads to B that is, is the cause of B the way the form behaves or functions. For instance, some human beings, because of their dishonest Aessence@ or Acharacter,@ consistently lie. Animals get their food instinctively, as the eagle does by hunting. Deciduous trees exhibit biological behavior when they seasonally drop their leaves, and flowers do so when they phototropically follow the sun. Heavy things resist movement and brittle things shatter. In each case, essential attributes result in essential behavior. The characteristic behavior of a form of being is a consequence of its characteristic attributes (pp. 169-170).

3. The Basic Great Chain B A Hierarchical and A Causal View

The Basic version of the Great Chain of Being consists of the combination of the Simple Great Chain and the Theory of the Nature of Things. It is, therefore, both hierarchical and causal.

The Basic Great Chain is extremely widespread and unconsciously taken for granted, not only in Western culture but throughout a wide range of cultures. We seem inevitably to form the model of the Basic Great Chain as we interact with the world.

Attributes which lead to Characteristic Behavior:

Humans have an essence which leads to higher-order attributes, such as thoughts and character.

Animals have instincts which cause their instinctual behavior.

Dogs

Insects

Plants have a biological essence which causes their behavior.

Trees

Algae

Inanimate Substances

Complex Objects (such as chairs):

Have structural attributes which lead to their functional behavior.

Natural Physical Things (such as rocks):

Have natural physical attributes which lead to their natural physical behavior (pp. 168-170, 209 and 213).

4. The Extended Great Chain B A Prescriptive View

The Extended version of the Great Chain of Being consists of a highly articulated version of the Basic Great Chain, expanding the Basic one to include the relation of human beings to the universe, God and society. This extension is central to the Western tradition and the model which derives from it, is the one which now prevails in the West. Similarly to its basic counterpart, it is largely unconscious (p. 167).

The Extended Chain elaborates the Basic Chain in three major ways:

a. It creates Higher Levels: Created, metaphorical extensions include:

The Cosmos:

The universe is represented metaphorically as if it were a form of being below it on the Great Chain. Thus, we speak of an Aindifferent,@ Abenevolent,@ or Amalevolent@ universe, as if the universe had human character traits. We conceive of the Cosmos as having an essential nature which is manifested in the way it operates, referring to its inexorable operation as Afate@ or Adestiny@ (pp. 204-205).

Society:

Societies are represented metaphorically as if they were forms of being below them on Great Chain. Thus, we speak of a Ajust society,@ a Apeace-loving nation @ and Athe evil empire,@ as if societies had human character attributes. We speak of the Agrowth@ and Adevelopment@ of nations, as if nations had a life cycle. We speak of Asatellite countries,@ as if countries were natural physical things subject to natural forces (p. 204).

b. It introduces Dominance: The Extended Chain includes the idea of dominance as a principle of the Cosmos. Higher forms of being dominate lower forms by virtue of their higher natures:

The Cosmos (God):

Most people, whether they use the word ACosmos@ or not, assume that there are some natural ways in which things work in the world, and that everything, from societies, to people, to lower forms of being, conforms to these ways.

Dominance is Anatural@ B God over humans, humans over animals, animals over plants and plants over inanimate substances. Thus, humans do, and have a right to, dominate animals. AAnd God said, >... Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth=@ (Genesis 1, 26) (p. 208).

Society:

Conventionally, we think it Anatural@ that people be subject to the ways of their society (pp. 208-209).

c. It expands each Level: The Extended Chain expands each level by giving it an internal hierarchy in which Ahigher@ forms dominate Alower@ forms. Each level thus becomes a microcosm of the macrocosm (the structure of the chain as a whole):

The Cosmos:

God

Christ

Archangels

Angels (seven levels B seraphim, cherubim, etc...)

The Church (a social microcosm of the cosmic level)

The Pope (God=s viceroy on earth)

Cardinals

Archbishops

Bishops

Society:

Upper (more powerful, better) classes

Lower classes

Humans:

The King

Nobility

Peasants

Men

Women

Adults

Children

Masters

Slaves

Animals:

Lions, grizzly bears, birds of prey

Gazelles, deer, snakes (pp. 209-210)

Social and Political Consequences of the Extended Great chain

The Basic Great Chain as the Dominant View of Reality: AThe view of reality as consisting of graded levels of being has dominated man=s outlook... from tribes into civilization.... Civilizations have refined the hierarchical perspective but have kept its basic structures.... [The view] has, in one form or another, been the dominant official philosophy of the larger part of civilized mankind through most of its history, [taught] in their several fashions and with differing degrees of rigor and thoroughness [by] the greater number of subtler speculative minds and the great religious teachers@ (Lovejoy, p. 26).

The Elaborations of the Great Chain in the West: In the West, the cultural elaborations of macrocosmic and microcosmic hierarchies have had profound social and political consequences, because the model indicates that the Great Chain is a description not merely of what hierarchies happen to exist in the world, but, further, of what the hierarchies in the world should be. This implies that it is wrong to attempt to subvert this order of dominance. The order of dominance is Anatural.@ The model assumes that dominance according to the Extended Great Chain is at the essence of the Cosmos and that to subvert that dominance in any microcosm is to challenge the correct order of the macrocosm (p. 210).

Contemporary Influence: The influence of the Extended Great Chain on our social and political beliefs and behavior dominates much of contemporary social and political behavior. The denomination AThird World,@ for instance, indicates that this World has an inferior status to that of the industrialized world and hence should be dominated by it. Un-industrialized nations B less powerful than industrialized ones B are considered Aunder-developed,@ as if the only criterion for Adevelopment@ were industrialization and power over other nations (p. 211).

Contemporary Challenges:

The Individual and Society: The notion that the state has dominion over the individual is being challenged (p. 212).

The Ecology Movement: The notion that human beings have a natural right to use animals and the earth as they see fit, without regard for the integrity of nature, is being challenged (p. 212).

The Entrenched Nature of the Concepts: Our concepts of the Basic and Extended Great Chains are firmly entrenched. The nefarious social, political, ethical, religious and ecological consequences will not disappear either quickly or easily, nor will they disappear of their own accord (p. 213).

References

All page numbers refer to:

Lakoff, George and Mark Turner, More than Cool Reason B A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor (University of Chicago, Chicago, IL), 1989.

Also referred to:

Lovejoy, Arthur, The Great Chain of Being (Harvard University, Cambridge, MA), 1936, p. 26; cited in Huston Smith, Forgotten Truth B The Common Vision of the World=s Religions (HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco, CA), 1976/1992, pp. 3-4.

Apart from Lovejoy=s, the other study devoted exclusively to the concept of the Great Chain is:

Guenon, Rene, Les Etats Multiples de l=Etre; cited in Huston Smith, Forgotten Truth B The Common Vision of the World=s Religions (HarperSanFrancisco, San Francisco, CA), 1976/1992, p. 4.

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