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The chain begins with God and descends through angels, humans, animals and plants to minerals. [1] [2] [3] The great chain of being (from Latin scala naturae 'ladder of being') is a concept derived from Plato, Aristotle (in his Historia Animalium), Plotinus and Proclus. [4]
Aristotle reported correctly that electric rays were able to stun their prey. Aristotle stated in the History of Animals that all beings were arranged in a fixed scale of perfection, reflected in their form (eidos). [o] They stretched from minerals to plants and animals, and on up to man, forming the scala naturae or great chain of being.
Against these ideas, Aristotle (384–322 BCE) argued that non-human animals had no interests of their own, ranking far below humans in the Great Chain of Being, or scala naturae, because of their alleged irrationality. [6] He was the first to attempt the creation of a taxonomical categorization and hierarchy of animals.
Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a detail from The School of Athens (1509 – 1511) by Raphael. Plato was called by biologist Ernst Mayr "the great antihero of evolutionism," [13] because he promoted belief in essentialism, which is also referred to as the theory of Forms. This theory holds that each natural type of object in the observed ...
The mediaeval great chain of being as a staircase, implying the possibility of progress: [1] Ramon Lull's Ladder of Ascent and Descent of the Mind, 1305. Alternatives to Darwinian evolution have been proposed by scholars investigating biology to explain signs of evolution and the relatedness of different groups of living things.
Historia animalium et al., Constantinople, 12th century (Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, pluteo 87.4). History of Animals (Ancient Greek: Τῶν περὶ τὰ ζῷα ἱστοριῶν, Ton peri ta zoia historion, "Inquiries on Animals"; Latin: Historia Animalium, "History of Animals") is one of the major texts on biology by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle.
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Aristotle, and nearly all Western scholars after him until the 18th century, believed that creatures were arranged in a graded scale of perfection rising from plants on up to humans: the scala naturae or Great Chain of Being.