The Great Chain of Being (Sidebar 4)

In an effort to organize and classify the world around him, man can easily organize any group of things or ideas into a specific order based on certain criteria. For centuries, dating back to the Greek philosophers, scientists have organized the natural world into a succession of things from the most complex down to the simplest elements. The first recorded outline of this theory is the Scala Naturae by Aristotle. Although influenced strongly by Plato's views on nature, Aristotle's treaties had the greatest influence on Western thinking. For an in depth study of the history of this theory, see Professor A. O. Lovejoy's 1942 book, The Great Chain of Being.

The Chain of Being can be thought of as a ladder with each rung holding a separate and distinct form. Some, such as Macrobius (born circa 360 AD), saw it as a continuum with an infinite number of links. Each person even had a specific link that they belonged to based on their social standing. The Great Chain of Being implied no relationships between forms. Each form merely existed in its category with no extinction and no movement between forms. The Scala Naturae was created immutable by God in its present order. Man and animals were created distinctly separate with animals having no soul. Man was a link between angels and animals since he was made from dust and spirit. While the Chain was considered to be of divine origin by its adherents, it is by no means a Biblical theory.

Although the similarities between the theory of evolution and the Chain of Being are striking, it is instructive to note the differences as well. The Chain was organized in a linear scale. Forms did not branch off nor did they connect to multiple other forms. The Chain of being had no gaps and there were no missing links. Forms were immutable and did not disappear through extinction. As new fossil species were discovered, they were added to the Chain where most appropriate. The Great Chain was always top to bottom. Theoretical lists were organized from the highest, most complex form, down to the simplest form. The Chain was thought to be handed down by God. As such, the chain always started with God, followed by various heavenly creatures and angels before listing man, who was followed by the animals. Some lists even included the planets and stars in the 'highest" forms.

The following is an abridged excerpt from the list by Genevan naturalist, Charles Bonnet (1720 - 1795).

Man - monkey - quadrupeds - bat - bird - flying fish - fish - eels - reptiles (snakes) - slugs - shellfish - insects - trees - plants - mushrooms - stones - earth -salts - metals - water- air.[1]

One should note that this list was not intended to show the evolution of one form to the next, but to show the similarities between each form. "The Scala Naturae in its pure form asserts the immutability of species. The entire chain of life is assumed to have been created in its present order when God by creative fiat brought the universe out of chaos."[2] Although the Neo-Platonists believed in a continuous chain with an infinite number of links that shaded into the next, they did not conceive of the links fluctuating and forms changing from one link to another link. The Great Chain of Being applied to cosmology, psychology, biology, and even sociology. Many areas of science, such as comparative morphology, comparative embryology, and taxonomy, developed through a desire to anticipate and bridge the assumed gaps in the Great Chain of Being with the emerging field of paleontology. This doctrine was popular in education and literature from the Renaissance through the end of the 18th century. It became very popular among French scientist in the 17th and 18th centuries. "It is ironic and intriguing that the fixed hierarchical order in biology began to pass almost contemporaneously with the disappearance of the feudal social scale in the storms of the French Revolution. It was France, whose social system was dissolving, that produced the first modem evolutionists."[3]

The Chain of Being just needed the addition of time and mobility between links to become the theory of evolution. It is obvious that the early evolutionists were influenced by the idea of a continuum of organisms. By inverting the Great Chain of Being, the ladder points upward with new life forms "spontaneously" generating at the bottom and each successive organism becoming increasingly more complex.

References:
1. Oldroyd, D. R., 1983. Danwinian Impacts, Humanities Press, Atlantic Highlands N. J., p. 10. Return to Text

2. Eisley, Loren, 1961. Darwin 's Century, Doubleday Anchor, New York, p. 8.
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3. Ibid., p.9 - 10.Return to Text