Question

Aristotle's ladder of nature, and the Great Chain of Being, were concepts suggesting __________.

a) life evolved on other worlds and was later transported to Earth down a celestial ladder
b) the accurate evolutionary view that all species are related, with each providing an evolutionary link (i.e. step in the ladder) to its immediate ancestor
c) the mystical teleological view that all species were created in a fixed order, from least to most perfect
d) life is a painful and purposeless experience of endless steps, but death brings release from the ladder of life

Answer 1

The most correct option is C

Step-by-step explanation:

Aristotle ladder of nature can be described as an idea (referred to as Scala Naturae) to organize all things (living and non-living) into a "ladder" where organism fits into a "step" on the ladder. He ranked animals higher than plants and plants higher than non-living things (like minerals). Humans were ranked first in his ladder.

The Great chain of Being is also a form of hierarchial ranking (of old christianity) starting from God to angels to humans to animals to plants and then finally to minerals.

These rankings have been suggested in the past by some "radicalists" to mean that all species were created from the simplest to the most complex and perfect which can be loosely translated to mean that all species were created in a fixed order, from least to most perfect