Peter Watson Quote

At its most simple, the notion underlying The Great Chain of Being, as identified in the first instance by Plato, is that the universe is essentially a rational place, in which all organisms are linked in a great chain, not on one scale of low to high (for Plato could see that even ‘lowly’ creatures were perfectly ‘adapted’, as we would say, to their niches in the scheme of things) but that there was in general terms a hierarchy which ranged from nothingness through the inanimate world, into the realm of plants, on up through animals and then humans, and above that through angels and other ‘immaterial and intellectual’ entities, reaching at the top a superior or supreme being, a terminus or Absolute.

Peter Watson

At its most simple, the notion underlying The Great Chain of Being, as identified in the first instance by Plato, is that the universe is essentially a rational place, in which all organisms are linked in a great chain, not on one scale of low to high (for Plato could see that even ‘lowly’ creatures were perfectly ‘adapted’, as we would say, to their niches in the scheme of things) but that there was in general terms a hierarchy which ranged from nothingness through the inanimate world, into the realm of plants, on up through animals and then humans, and above that through angels and other ‘immaterial and intellectual’ entities, reaching at the top a superior or supreme being, a terminus or Absolute.

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About Peter Watson

Peter Watson may refer to:

Peter William Watson (1761–1830), English merchant and botanist
Peter Watson (shoemaker) (fl. 1824), shoemaker and political activist, Chester-le-Street, England
Peter Watson (arts benefactor) (1908–1956), British art collector, benefactor and publisher
Peter Watson (ophthalmologist) (1930–2017), British ophthalmologist
Peter Watson (footballer, born 1934) (1934–2013), English footballer for Nottingham Forest and Southend United
Peter Watson (footballer, born 1935) (1935–2016), English footballer for Workington
Peter Watson (bishop) (born 1936), Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne, 2000–2005
Peter Watson (musician) (born 1941), rock guitarist and member of English 1960s band The Action
Peter Watson (intellectual historian) (born 1943), English intellectual historian and author
Peter Watson (footballer, born 1944), Northern Irish footballer
Peter Watson (politician) (born 1947), member of the Western Australian parliament
Peter Watson (cyclist) (born 1950), English cyclist
Peter Watson (photographer) (born 1952), British landscape photographer