Worlds Within Worlds (Table 1)

TABLE 1

COMPARISON OF THE GREAT CHAIN OF BEING AND THE MODERN HIERARCHICAL VIEW OF EXISTENCE

BASIC FEATURE	GREAT CHAIN	MODERN HIERARCHY
origin	created by God	created in part by evolution
type of organization	non-nested	nested (holarchical)
inclusivity	organisms, humans, higher forms of life, God	matter, life, mind, higher forms of consciousness
relationship between levels	single, essential links	multiple, interdependent processes
similarity of levels	degrees of imperfection	multiple analogical relationships
development	static, closed system	dynamic, evolutionary, open system