The Great Chain of Being
[2023-09-19 18:33:08]
A.O. Lovejoy began to introduce him to the "big chain of existence" by trying to explain the meaning of thought history research. By doing so, he refers to "something more specific and less common than philosophical history". The main difference is the manufacturing unit of each unit. The concepts and movements contained in the history of philosophy must be broken down into smaller fragments and unitary ideas. Lovejoy believes that the history of thinking is comparable to analytical chemistry; the main focus of historians is to separate individual units from larger images, or to separate them into their combinations in analytical chemistry .
The first example is a huge chain that exists as shown on the right. A large chain of existence is a rigid hierarchy of all substances and life and is believed to have been enacted by God in medieval Christianity. This chain is from God to angel, devil (fallen angel), star, moon, king, prince, aristocracy, civilians, wildlife, domesticated animals, trees, other plants, precious stones, precious metals and other landmines It has grown. Material This worldview represents a simple, logical, powerful and comprehensive hierarchy. This is a truly beautiful view of the world as it provides many useful functions, including spirituality, omniscience, totipotency, good and evil, and obvious mysteries and brief explanations of unresolved problems. It includes the sacred right of respect for the king, aristocracy, clergy and authority. It legalizes aristocrats and social classes that brought about slavery, racial discrimination, sex discrimination and grading. It establishes the human rule of the earth
In Macbeth, there is a social order that the king is at the top, as specified by the large chain of existence. Because the sacred rights of the king are respected, the order is maintained in the heavens and the earth. When Macbeth cut off the sacred right of the king, he disrupted the big chain of existence. As the great chain of exist puts God at the top, the consequences of Macbeth 's sins are felt between the heavens and the earth. These results can be seen in the fourth act of the second act. The sun is dark, the owl kills the hawk and the horses kill each other violently. When Macbeth was killed and a legitimate heir occupied the throne, the heavens and the earth reestablished the order for the existent large presence chain.
While reading Macbeth, I can see that the drama illustrates the end of the big chain of existence in a way that makes up the whole script. Great existence linkage theory is very important to Shakespeare's companion and he is used to set up events for his play. According to this theory, everything in the world is fixed by God. The main event showing the collapse of the large chain is that Macbeth killed King Duncan, he can become king himself. The great linkage theory of existence suggests that the act of destroying the chain (for God) causes the world to lose control and its natural existence to be lost. When Macbeth became king after Duncan, Scotland escaped from the natural order, so that country became a chaotic disorder. It does not matter what Macbeth does. Because it always leads the world out of natural order and Scotland will be confused anyway.