During the middle ages and after, alchemical thinking divided nature into animal, vegetable, and mineral.  There is in fact a natural succession from inert mineral to the plant that is alive but not (apparently) sentient to the animal that has awareness but not reason.  Hence the human kingdom as the next rung on the ladder of being.  The series mineral-plant-animal-man is still used in a number of western esoteric systems of thought: Theosophy, Anthroposophy, Rosicrucianism, contemporary Sufism, the teachings of Edgar Cayce, more recent New Age, channellings, and science-metaphysics syntheses like Arthur Young's Reflexive Universe.

The concept of the "four kingdoms of nature" was adopted and modified by the theosophists, who proposed a number of involutionary kingdoms that represent the downward antecedent of the "evolutionary" kingdoms of plants, animals and man.

Note: The following is taken from the archives of a Baha'i newsgroup and nicely illustrates the problem of reconciling traditional spiritual thought with modern science in understanding the natural world.

Sean Alphonse (post dated Mon, 8 Sep 1997)
Hello and Allah'u'Abha. My intention, as a Baha'i is to use this newsgroup, soc.religion.bahai, as a means of healthy consultation for Baha'is and non-declared Baha'is. My question deals with the topic of kingdoms discussed within the writings of Abdu'l-Baha. On page 240 of the book The Promulgation of Universal Peace, Abdu'l-Baha writes:

"Answering them, the men of divine knowledge have said that all existing phenomena may be resolved into grades or kingdoms, classified progressively as mineral, vegetable, animal and human, each of which possesses its degree of function and intelligence. When we consider the mineral, we find that it exists and is possessed of the power of affinity or combination. The vegetable possesses the qualities of the mineral plust the augumentative virtue or power of growth. It is, therefore, evident that the vegetable kingdom is superior to the mineral. The animal kingdom in turn possesses the qualities of the mineral and vegetable plus the five senses of perception whereof the kingdoms below it are lacking.  Likewise, the power of memory inherent in the animal does not exist in the lower kingdoms."

At this moment in time, in the scientific world, there are more than four kingdoms representing the phenomenal world. If we assume that the mineral world applies to all phenomena that is not living nor biological, then there are still five kingdoms within the world of biology and microbiology. For example, protozoan life is understand not to be classified as an animal or plant because of certain criteria, such as being only a single eukaryotic celled organism, etc. Likewise, all fungi and bacteria have their own classifications separate from that of the plant, animal kingdom and humans ( with the basic assumption that humans are classified separately because of their ability to exclusively have a free will). My question is, should this concept of the spiritual kingdoms, as presented by Abdu'l-Baha, include these other kingdoms, and if not what is to happen to extra kingdoms presented in the biological scientific community?

Jean B. Hunter (post dated Sat, 13 Sep 1997)
Hi Sean -- If you look at the criteria that Abdu'l-Baha sets out for the vegetable kingdom, which "possesses the qualities of the mineral plus the the augmentative virtue or power of growth" and the animal kingdom which also "possesses the five senses of perception", it seems clear that the micro-organisms would fall within Abdu'l-Baha's definition of the plant kingdom. IMHO having the 5 senses of perception denotes the existence of a central nervous system, which all but a few animal species have and no plant or micro-organism has. (Sponges don't have a CNS)

Remember also that when Abdu'l-Baha was teaching, microbiology was a reasonably new science with a very confused taxonomy; for example, fungi were classified with the plants. Now different fungi are classed in 3 different kingdoms none of which is the plants!

IMHO we can't expect the dynamic and ever-advancing knowledge of physical reality that we get from science, and the cosmic, timeless knowledge encapsulated in static scripture, to correspond precisely. The worlds of creation and revelation aren't necessarily governed by the same natural laws.

My 2 cents, Jean in Ithaca
-         Jean Hunter, Ithaca, NY,    USA, Earth, Universe, the Mind of God

More recently, E.F. Schumacher in Chapter 2 of "Guide for the Perplexed" 1977 revived the four kingdom concept as an example of the "Perennial Philosophy"

The following table correlates these different systems.

Modern science however has rendered the four kingdom idea obsolete.  First the mineral kingdom or inanimate matter has been replaced by the hierarchy of particles, atoms, and molocules.  Then more recently the plant and animal kingdoms were replaced by the five kingdom model of Whittaker (monera, protist, fungi, plant, and animal (including human)), and then the three domains of Woese and others.

The above mentioned discoveries in the physical sciences in the late 19th and early 20th centuries led some authors has also added further kingdoms like subatomic particles, atoms, molocules, etc before the mineral.  Arthur Young proposes the interesting hypothesis that particles, atoms, and molocules represent the downward part of the theosophical series. These authors retain the now dated distinction of life into plant and animal, showing how "hedgehog"-style esotericist unified science lags behind discoveries in science. This is because it is impossible to keep track of all new discoiveries, and hence generalisations that the grand theorists make are often faulty

A further approach is indicated by Theosophy, which has both involutionary and evolutionary stages or kingdoms.

The following table correlates these different systems.

This suggests

• pre-physical stages of the involution of consciousness
• stages of the involution of consciousness and evolution of matter
• stages of the evolution of matter and consciousness

The first is the province of occultism and metaphysics.  The second is characterised by increasing "objectivity", restriction (entropy - linear thermodynamics).  The third refers to increasing creativity, diversity, and freedom (negative entropy - non-linear thermodynamics)

Meanwhile, in a progressive move that does not conflict with science, Sri Aurobindo, and Teilhard, replaced the four kingdoms with four evolutionary, stages: matter/geosphere, life/biosphere (which includes all five kingdoms and thre edomains), mind/noosphere (incorporating the human kingdom), and a future spiritual state of attainmaint and collective consumation, which Aurobindo terms the Supramental and Teilhard the Omega Point.