hierarchy
Sign in to savethumb|right|The mediaeval scala naturae as a staircase, implying the orthogenesis|possibility of progress: [[Ramon Llull's Ladder of Ascent and Descent of the Mind, 1305]]
AI overview
A hierarchy is a system that arranges people, things, or ideas in ranked levels, with some positioned above others in order or importance. Hierarchies matter because they help organize complex groups and structures, though the image suggests they've long been imagined as pathways for progress or ascent through different levels.
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Article
38 sectionsContents
- Nomenclature
- Degree of branching <span id="Terminology"></span>
- Etymology
- {{anchor|Visually representing hierarchies}}Representing hierarchies
- Visual hierarchy
- Informal representation
- Mathematical representation
- Subtypes
- Nested hierarchy
- Containment hierarchy
- Subsumptive containment hierarchy
- Compositional containment hierarchy
- Contexts and applications
- Organizations
- Biology
- Computer-graphic imaging
- Linguistics
- Music
- Examples of other applications
- Information-based
- City planning-based
- Linguistics-oriented
- Power- or authority-based
- Value-related
- Perception-based
- History-oriented
- Science-focussed
- Technology-based
- Religion-related
- Methods using hierarchy
- Criticisms
- Ethics, behavioral psychology, philosophies of identity
- See also
- Structure-related concepts
- Footnotes
- Works cited
- Further reading
- External links
thumb|right|The mediaeval scala naturae as a staircase, implying the orthogenesis|possibility of progress: [[Ramon Llull's Ladder of Ascent and Descent of the Mind, 1305]]
A hierarchy (, ) is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. Hierarchy is an important concept in a wide variety of fields, such as architecture, philosophy, design, mathematics, computer science, organizational theory, systems theory, systematic biology, and the social sciences (especially political science).