The Great Wheel of Being

Drawing on a tremendous range of sources, from Plato to the modern sciences, a leading ethicist offers an ambitious new account of ethics in a more-than-human world

Christian theology is often seen as a major source of human exceptionalism. Yet it is not necessary to read the tradition in this way. In this ambitious book, Jennifer A. Herdt shows how powerful theological resources exist by which to deconstruct the Great Chain of Being that uses proximity to the human and God as the measuring stick of creaturely value. Dismantling this “great chain,” she draws on Pseudo-Dionysius’s image of a great wheel with God as the center, in which creaturely radii are anchored. Each individual creature receives its being and value directly from God; none is closer to or farther from the Logos.

Reinventing the ancient practice of theoria physiké, the contemplation of nature, Herdt explores the practical responsiveness to the good we humans share with other animals. More-than-human dimensions of ethical agency include empathy and care, cooperation, sensitivity to equity, recognition of social norms and roles, animal virtues, and play. At a moment when humanisms are under attack, and the rapid development of artificial intelligence is creating a crisis of identity for self-aware forms of organic life, this book invites us to recognize the all-too-human limits of our concepts and practices.