The Great Chain of Being framed all beings in a fixed value hierarchy.

Evidence

Starting in the Middle Ages, Europeans were familiar with the intellectual model of the “proper” ordering of the Universe, the “Great Chain of Being.” This idea, developed early in the Common Era and articulated by early medieval Church philosophers (remember, the only ones in Europe at the time with any formal learning), ordered all things in a hierarchical relationship: God was at the top, followed by angels and saints, followed by human beings, then animals, then plants, then nonliving elements of Nature. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 1123

Categorization

• DEFINE: The Great Chain of Being is a needed anchor concept for teaching the root of value-hierarchized thought.
• XREF: Concrete historical case of the value-hierarchized thought the whole book diagnoses (ch 1, 5, 8). — connects to: Early racial science ranked African women between humans and orangutans — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1153; Plato through German idealism grounded reason in an objective hierarchy of beings. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1457; Vital forces form a descending hierarchy from God through ancestors to inanimate world — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 526

Broader Connections

• Vital forces form a descending hierarchy from God through ancestors to inanimate world #exemplifies (0.95) — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 526
• Plato through German idealism grounded reason in an objective hierarchy of beings. #expands (0.90) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1457