Question

The ‘Great chain of being’ is proposed by
A. Anaximander
B. Plato
C. Aristotle
D. Socrates

Answer 1

Hint:- The Great Chain of Being, also known as the Chain of Being, is a conception of the essence of the cosmos that had a dominant influence on Western thought, particularly during the European Renaissance and the 17th and early 18th centuries through the ancient Greek Neoplatonists and derived philosophies.

Complete answer: Three general features of the universe are denoted by the Great Chain of Being: plenitude, continuity, and gradation. The theory of plenitude asserts that the universe is "complete" and exhibits the highest diversity of existence; all that is conceivable (i.e. not self-contradictory) is true. The theory of continuity states that the world is composed of an infinite sequence of shapes, each having at least one characteristic with its neighbour.This sequence differs from the barest form of life to the perfectissimum, or God, in hierarchical order, according to the concept of linear gradation.

The idea of the chain of being was first systematised by the Neoplatonist philosopher Plotinus, while Plato and Aristotle derived the component principles.

"The form of the Good (or Goodness) of Plato in the Republic, immortal, everlasting, ineffable, ideal, the ultimate object of love, is fused with the Timaeus Demiurge, who created the universe of being because" he was good, and no jealousy of something else ever emerges in one that is good.

A description of the spectrum was proposed by Aristotle and various graded scales of existence were pointed out. Therefore, in the words of Plotinus, in his Enneads, "The One is perfect because he searches for nothing, and possesses nothing, and wants none; and being perfect, it overflows, and so its superabundance creates an Other." This generation of the Many from the One must proceed until all imaginable ways of being are realised in the descending sequence.

So from these discussions we can conclude that Aristotle proposed the ‘Great chain of being’.

Therefore the correct answer is option (C) Aristotle.

Note:-
The scale of being served in the sense of loss of any good by Plotinus and many later authors as an example of the nature of bad. It also gave a case for optimism; since all things other than the end perfectissimo are flawed or bad to some degree, and since the goodness of the universe as a whole consists of its fullness, one that includes the greatest possible diversity of things and therefore all possible evils would be the best possible world.The idea died out in the 19th century, but Arthur O. Lovejoy resurrected it briefly in the 20th.