great chain of being
a construction, attributed to Greek philosopher Plato (c. 429–347 bce) and elaborated by many later philosophers, that sees creation as a continuous linked hierarchy descending from God at the top, through heavenly beings, humans, animals, and plants to nonliving matter. The classic work on the history of this idea is the 1936 study by U.S. philosopher Arthur O. Lovejoy (1873–1963).