Hierarchy as a Worldview in the Middle Ages

How the Philosophy of Analogy Influenced Social Structure

Jul 19, 2008

The medieval need for hierarchical structure based on religious Neo-platonic philosophy has shaped our way of life and perspective of the world.

To the medieval mind, analogy was of great importance. Physicians, for example, actually believed that walnuts were beneficial for the brain because they resembled the brain and were structured in a similar way. Analogous beliefs have been mostly influenced by the Neo-platonic Christian tradition, such as St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, and these beliefs directly affected not only religion, but also the structure of politics and society.

Plato’s Forms: Everything is a Copy of the Absolute Divine Truth

Plato claimed that worldly life is a “copy” or representation of the ideal or heavenly Forms. Any object or being that we may find on earth has been derived from its prototype, its original perfect Form. For example, any individual cat or spoon can be traced back to the prototypical existence of the Cat or the Spoon. As such, the Christian tradition aligned humans with their own prototype the angels in heaven and life on earth became the copy of life in paradise.

Aristotle’s Hierarchical Structure of Humans, Animals, and Plants

In the later Middle Ages, Aristotle’s thought came to be significant, especially through St. Thomas Aquinas. The consequences of these analogous correlations were eminently felt and reflected in the social and political sphere. There was a strong need and desire for hierarchy. Aristotle’s “Great Chain of Being”, “the Scala Naturae”, or also referred to as the “Ladder of Life” was in fact an early precursor of evolution theory, claiming that species can be ordered from the lowest to the highest, putting minerals and plants at the low end and humans on the highest end of the scale.

The World Needed to Be Structured in Hierarchical Fashion

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the origin of the word hierarchy comes from hieros, meaning “sacred” and archein meaning “to lead, to rule”. It was claimed that hierarchy should be applied to human social and political structure. The King was destined to rule over the people because he was divinely predestinated for the throne. He was followed by the court, which included the nobles and the royal advisors at the top and the people at the bottom.

In the Catholic Church, the Pope is seen as a divine embodiment or avatar, followed by his cardinals, archbishops and bishops. Even in the traditional family, the father was seen as the head of the family and decision-maker, followed by the mother and the children. Such unity needed to be preserved and respect was commanded towards the male authority figure in this patriarchic view of the world.

Hierarchy in the Field of Humanistic Psychology

Maslow has most famously used a hierarchical structure of the self based on various kinds of human needs. At the top you find the "being needs" that describe the self-actualized person and in condescending order you reach the "deficit needs" at its bottom, the basic physiological needs of food and shelter.

This view in humanism is more interested in describing the various stages and needs of the developing self and to give a microcosmic perspective of the human. It follows an age-old tradition of categorizing and classifying into hierarchical structures.