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Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence, or reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations. Traditionally listed as a part of the major branch of philosophy known as metaphysics, ontology deals with questions concerning what entities exist or can be said to exist, and how such entities can be grouped, related within a hierarchy, and subdivided according to similarities and differences. — Wikipedia

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Cosmological Cosmos, Being

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being : (1) the quality or state of having existence (2) something that is conceivable and hence capable of existing (3) something that actually exists (4) the totality of existing things (5) conscious existence : life (6) the qualities that constitute an existent thing (7) a living thing (sentient being, mythical being) — Webster

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Being is an extremely broad concept encompassing objective and subjective features of reality and existence. Anything that partakes in being is also called a “being”, though often this use is limited to entities that have subjectivity (as in the expression “human being”). So broad a notion has, inevitably, been elusive and controversial in the history of philosophy, beginning in western philosophy with attempts among the pre-Socratics to deploy it intelligibly. — Wikipedia

Being and Becoming in Modern Physics (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), Britannica, Columbia (Infoplease)

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Great chain of being is a hierarchical structure of all matter and life composed of a great number of hierarchical links, from the most basic and foundational elements up through the very highest perfection. In his natural order, earth (rock) is at the bottom of the chain: this element possesses only the attribute of existence. Each link succeeding upward contains the positive attributes of the previous link and adds (at least) one other. Rocks, as above, possess only existence; the next link up, plants, possess life and existence. Animals add not only motion, but appetite as well. Man is both mortal flesh, as those below him, and also spirit as those above. — Wikipedia

Great Chain of Being (Britannica)
Huston Smith and the Primordial Tradition: Four Levels of Reality (M.Alan Kazlev, The Great Chain of Being)
Great Chain of Being (Site Home)
Artist Pokes Fun At ‘Great Chain of Being’ With New Wadsworth Exhibit (Susan Dunne Susan Dunne, Hartford Courant)