1. The Ontological Basis for the Gradation of Ex-
isting Things.
Historically we may trace the concep-
tion of a Chain of Being to the Platonic Idea of Ideas,
or Idea of the Good, discussed in the seventh book of
the Republic. This Idea is in fact the summit of the
hierarchy of knowable things, for not only do they owe
to it the quality of
their being knowable, but derive
from it their very, existence by
participating in various
degrees in its nature (509b). Thus, the supreme
Idea
provides the logical basis of a world of sensibilia con-
ceived as graded with respect to
perfection. The Idea
of the Good, however, is no more than a logical foun-
dation, insofar as no active element or
agent intervenes
yet; instead, this element of activity is made an
intrinsic
feature of the Demiurge, introduced by Plato in the
Timaeus. The Demiurge creates the sensible world
modelled on the intelligible one (27d-29c). He cannot
fail to generate
things in that way since, being with-
out
jealousy, his very nature is to desire that all things
approach as closely
as possible to himself (29d-30a).
Fecundity is thus an essential element of
divine per-
fection. Self-sufficient
perfection is at the same time
self-transcendence in the sensible world.
Thus God
becomes at once the logical and ontological foundation
of the
world's multiplicity and variety.
This quality of generative self-transcendence of the
supreme Being finds its
most radical expression in
Plotinus. It is of the very nature of the One in
its
perfection to “overflow,” producing in its
exuberance
the “other” (Enneads V, 21). All beings, then, partici-
pate in the nature of the Good in such measure as they
may,
according to their individual capacity.
