I. The Great Chain of Being

A. O. Lovejoy. The Great Chain of Being (1936)

Plenitude; Gradation; Continuity

II. G. W. Leibniz (1646-1716) Theory of Optimism

A Vindication of God’s Justice (1710)

Monadology (1714)

The Best of All Possible Worlds

III. Teleology:  The Argument from Design