What is another word for chain of being?

Pronunciation: [t͡ʃˈe͡ɪn ɒv bˈiːɪŋ] (IPA)

The term "chain of being" refers to the medieval and Renaissance concept of hierarchical order, in which all things are arranged in a linear sequence from the lowest to the highest, each linked to the one above and below it. Some alternative synonyms for "chain of being" include the Great Chain of Being, the ladder of life, the scala naturae, the cosmic hierarchy, and the order of nature. All of these terms suggest a similar idea of a connected and organized system of existence, with each level distinct and important in its own right, but ultimately subordinate to the level above.

Synonyms for Chain of being:

What are the hypernyms for Chain of being?

A hypernym is a word with a broad meaning that encompasses more specific words called hyponyms.

Famous quotes with Chain of being

  • Biology will relate every human gene to the genes of other animals and bacteria, to this great chain of being.
    Walter Gilbert
  • A masterpiece of art has in the mind a fixed place in the chain of being, as much as a plant or a crystal.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • is the most extended and extensive meditation on sex in the history of poetry. It charts the entire erotic spectrum, a great chain of being rising from matter to spirit, from the coarsest lust to chastity and romantic idealism. The poem’s themes of sex and politics are parallel: the psyche, like society, must be disciplined by good government. Spenser agrees with the classical and Christian philosophers on the primacy of reason over animal appetites. He looks forward to the Romantic poets, however, in the way that he shows the sex impulse as ultimately daemonic and barbaric, breeding witches and sorcerers of evil allure. Like the Odyssey, is a heroic epic in which the masculine must evade female traps or delays.
    Edmund Spenser
  • An event is not triggered by a chain of being, but by a field of causes spreading horizontally, like creeping tide.
    Kevin Kelly (editor)

Related words: being, reality, ontology, sense of being, hierarchy of being

Related questions:

  • What is the chain of being?
  • What are the different levels of the chain of being?
  • What is the chain of being in ontology?
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