The Great Chain of Being

The Great Chain of Being, a concept derived from Plato and Aristotle, details the hierarchical structure of all matter and life, believed to have been decreed by God, sometimes represented as a stairway from the lower orders, which were considered temporal and ephemeral, to the higher orders of being, which were considered eternal. Human beings are both flesh (temporal) and spirit (eternal), thus establishing the body/spirit binary as a moral dichotomy—spirit is closer to God and eternal, the body and its pleasures are temporal and indulgence moves one away from God.