| Basic Concept: The "Great Chain of
Being" Theory
One of the most influential concepts in Western philosophy, the "Great Chain of Being" Theory is attributed to Plato, although it was never formulated until the First Century by Plotinus, in his "neo-Platonism," a body of speculative beliefs rejected as heresy by the Roman Catholic Church. The "Great Chain of Being" suggests a hierarchy of being that starts with the "god-head" as pure spirit and ends through a process of creative emulation with inert matter: . Plato distinguished what he called "Ideal Forms," the patterns of material being that exist in the mind of God. Knowledge of "Ideal Forms" and other abstract knowledge (knowledge of categories) Plato suggested we are born with. Innate knowledge came to be known as "a priori" knowledge, or knowledge derived "before experience." . Online Connection For more information on the concept of the "Great Chain of Being" and its elaboration in Western philosophy, see Dr. Peter Suber's "The Great Chain of Being." . Our Course Connection The concept of the "Great Chain of Being" is implied to one degree or another in all the religious writings found throughout early American literature, to the extent that that writing is Christian in its orientation. The "transcendentalists," many of whom rejected essential Christian elements such as belief in miracles and several key doctrines, also reflect in their religious writings elements of the theory in their salute to Eastern mysticism as embraced in the Upanishads, the Hindu holy scriptures. The "Chain of Being" theory complements the concept of the "dual" nature of the universe most celebrated in the writings of Emerson ("Self Reliance") and Whitman ("Song of Myself").  |