the Great Chain of Being
E645647
The Great Chain of Being is a hierarchical conception of the universe that arranges all forms of existence, from God down through angels, humans, animals, and inanimate matter, in a fixed and ordered scale of perfection.
All labels observed (5)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| the Great Chain of Being canonical | 3 |
| The Great Chain of Being | 2 |
| Great Chain of Being | 1 |
| chain of being | 1 |
| his book The Great Chain of Being | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7148403 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: the Great Chain of Being Context triple: [An Essay on Man, centralTheme, the Great Chain of Being]
-
A.
The Unity of Nature
The Unity of Nature is a 19th-century work by George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll, that explores the harmony and interconnectedness of natural laws from a theistic and philosophical perspective.
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B.
Deus sive Natura
Deus sive Natura is Baruch Spinoza’s philosophical conception of God as identical with the single, all-encompassing substance of nature and reality.
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C.
Die Einheit der Natur
Die Einheit der Natur is a philosophical work by Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker that explores the conceptual foundations and unity of the natural sciences.
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D.
Hexaemeron
Hexaemeron is a series of homilies by Basil of Caesarea that offers a theological and philosophical commentary on the six days of creation in the Book of Genesis.
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E.
Hexaemeron
Hexaemeron is a theological work by St. Ambrose of Milan that offers a patristic commentary on the six days of Creation described in the Book of Genesis.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: the Great Chain of Being Target entity description: The Great Chain of Being is a hierarchical conception of the universe that arranges all forms of existence, from God down through angels, humans, animals, and inanimate matter, in a fixed and ordered scale of perfection.
-
A.
The Unity of Nature
The Unity of Nature is a 19th-century work by George Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll, that explores the harmony and interconnectedness of natural laws from a theistic and philosophical perspective.
-
B.
Deus sive Natura
Deus sive Natura is Baruch Spinoza’s philosophical conception of God as identical with the single, all-encompassing substance of nature and reality.
-
C.
Die Einheit der Natur
Die Einheit der Natur is a philosophical work by Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker that explores the conceptual foundations and unity of the natural sciences.
-
D.
Hexaemeron
Hexaemeron is a series of homilies by Basil of Caesarea that offers a theological and philosophical commentary on the six days of creation in the Book of Genesis.
-
E.
Hexaemeron
Hexaemeron is a theological work by St. Ambrose of Milan that offers a patristic commentary on the six days of Creation described in the Book of Genesis.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
cosmological hierarchy
ⓘ
philosophical concept ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Aristotelian philosophy
ⓘ
Neoplatonism ⓘ |
| centralIdea |
all reality forms a single ordered whole
ⓘ
no gaps between levels of being ⓘ perfection decreases with distance from God ⓘ |
| criticizedBy |
Enlightenment thinkers
ⓘ
linked to:
Enlightenment philosophy
|
| criticizedFor |
rigid view of nature
ⓘ
supporting inequality ⓘ |
| declinedWith |
development of modern science
ⓘ
rise of evolutionary theory ⓘ |
| describes | hierarchical structure of reality ⓘ |
| developedFrom | ancient Greek metaphysics ⓘ |
| hasAlternativeName |
chain of being
ⓘ
linked to:
the Great Chain of Being
scala naturae ⓘ |
| hasProperty |
continuous gradation of beings
ⓘ
fixed order ⓘ hierarchical order ⓘ scale of perfection ⓘ |
| historicallyDominantIn |
early modern Europe
ⓘ
medieval Europe ⓘ |
| implies |
every being has a proper place
ⓘ
ontological inequality among beings ⓘ |
| includesLevel |
God
ⓘ
angels ⓘ animals ⓘ humans ⓘ inanimate matter ⓘ plants ⓘ |
| influencedField |
ethics
ⓘ
literature ⓘ metaphysics ⓘ natural history ⓘ political theory ⓘ theology ⓘ |
| influencedTradition |
Renaissance philosophy
ⓘ
early modern natural philosophy ⓘ medieval Christian thought ⓘ |
| orders | all forms of existence ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
cosmic hierarchy
ⓘ
natural order ⓘ ontological hierarchy ⓘ |
| startsWith | God ⓘ |
| usedToJustify |
gender hierarchy
ⓘ
monarchical authority ⓘ social hierarchy ⓘ species hierarchy ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: the Great Chain of Being Description of subject: The Great Chain of Being is a hierarchical conception of the universe that arranges all forms of existence, from God down through angels, humans, animals, and inanimate matter, in a fixed and ordered scale of perfection.
Referenced by (8)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: the Great Chain of Being
linked to: the Great Chain of Being
linked to: the Great Chain of Being
linked to: the Great Chain of Being
Of the Nature and State of Man, with Respect to the Universe
→
mainTheme
→
the Great Chain of Being
ⓘ
subject linked to:
the Great Chain of Being
linked to: the Great Chain of Being