Great Chain of Being

• A prevailing idea through the ages is that of the Great Chain of Being, understanding the universe as a hierarchy of beings, an unbroken chain of existence, from the simplest forms to the most complex ones, from non-living matter to the most rational creatures (Lovejoy 1936). In his History of Animals from the fourth century BCE, Aristotle arranged all beings in a ladder of nature, a scala naturae, a gradation of natural things from minerals, through plants and animals, to the human being. The chain of being got biological significance with, among others, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Carl Linnaeus, Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon, and Charles Bonnet. Nature does not make jumps, Natura non-facit saltus, as Carl Linnaeus formulated it in Philosophia Botanica (1751). There is continuity in nature. In that respect, the Great Chain of Being is connected to the Principle of Plenitude, the fullness of being. The principle suggests that every possible form of creature exists. This could also be understood in a temporal sense that every possible form of creature, even though not existing right now, might have existed before or could be realized at some stage in the future. Continuity is an idea implicit in that of plenitude. In the early nineteenth century, this continuity of nature became understood in temporal meaning. Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck went from a static concept of the series of life-forms to a theory of species transformation that life had developed over time from simpler to more complex forms. During the nineteenth century, the Great Chain of Being was replaced by another metaphor, the Tree of Life, which also stressed on the continuity of nature, but took into account the genealogy and evolution of life-forms, as in Lamarck’s Philosophie zoologique (1809) and Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859).

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Filosofi, etik och religion -- Idé- och lärdomshistoria (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Philosophy, Ethics and Religion -- History of Ideas (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Filosofi, etik och religion -- Filosofi (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Philosophy, Ethics and Religion -- Philosophy (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

History of Biology

History of Science

Philosophy of Science

Filosofi

Philosophy

Astronomy

Astronomi

Philosophy, with specialization in history of philosophy

Filosofi med filosofihistorisk inriktning

Idé- och lärdomshistoria

History of Sciences and Ideas

History of Biology

History of Science

Philosophy of Science

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