Since all beings were linked into a chain, so that there was a fundamental unity of all matter, the transformation from one place in the chain to the next might, according to alchemical reasoning, be possible. In alchemy Īlchemy used the great chain as the basis for its cosmology. In the Northern Renaissance, the scientific focus shifted to biology the threefold division of the chain below humans formed the basis for Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturæ from 1737, where he divided the physical components of the world into the three familiar kingdoms of minerals, plants and animals. In medieval times, the great chain was seen as a God-given and unchangeable ordering. The scala allowed for an ordering of beings, thus forming a basis for classification where each kind of mineral, plant and animal could be slotted into place. Īristotle's non-religious concept of higher and lower organisms was taken up by natural philosophers during the Scholastic period to form the basis of the Scala Naturae. In his History of Animals, where he ranked animals over plants based on their ability to move and sense, and graded the animals by their reproductive mode, live birth being "higher" than laying cold eggs, and possession of blood, warm-blooded mammals and birds again being "higher" than "bloodless" invertebrates. The basic idea of a ranking of the world's organisms goes back to Aristotle's biology. Natural science From Aristotle to Linnaeus įurther information: Aristotle's biology § Classification Their attributes were being solid and strong, while the gemstones possessed magic.
Minerals Īt the bottom of the chain, minerals were unable to move, sense, grow, or reproduce.
All the same, many plants had useful properties serving for food or medicine. The highest plants had attractive attributes like leaves and flowers, while the lowest plants, like mushrooms and moss, did not, and stayed low on the ground, close to the mineral earth. Plants lacked sense organs and the ability to move, but they could grow and reproduce. All, however, had the senses of touch and taste. The highest animals like the lion, the king of beasts, could move vigorously, and had powerful senses such as excellent eyesight and the ability to smell their prey, while lower animals might wriggle or crawl, and the lowest like oysters were sessile, attached to the sea-bed. Angelic beings Ĭharles Bonnet's chain of being from Traité d'insectologie, 1745 Animals Īnimals have senses, are able to move, and have physical appetites. He is the model of perfection for all lower beings. He has all the spiritual attributes found in humans and angels, and uniquely has his own attributes of omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. God has created all other beings and is therefore outside creation, time, and space. The chain of being links God, angels, humans, animals, plants, and minerals. The minerals are, in the medieval mind, a possible exception to the immutability of the material beings in the chain, as alchemy promised to turn lower elements like lead into those higher up the chain, like silver or gold. Thus, the higher the being is in the chain, the more attributes it has, including all the attributes of the beings below it. At the bottom are the mineral materials of the earth itself they consist only of matter. Beneath them are humans, consisting both of spirit and matter they change and die, and are thus essentially impermanent.
The chain of being hierarchy has God at the top, above angels, which like him are entirely spirit, without material bodies, and hence unchangeable.
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