Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea (William James Lectures Series)

""The Great Chain of Being, employed as a title, would have suggested...what was 'probably the most widely familiar conception of the general scheme of things'-the idea of a world in which every being was related to every other in a continuously graded scale, with no possible form of diversity missing. Pursuing the biography of this idea through more than two thousand years, the distinguished author of these lectures makes clear its amazing influence on the thought and history of the Western World... Intellectual vigor, critical precision and an amazing knowledge of what mankind has thought and desired in other ages distinguishes this book. No student of the history of literature, science, or philosophy may well neglect it."-Clifford Barrett, The New York Times Book Review""