Leibniz clearly maintained that every genuine possibility must be actualized in the best of all possible worlds , and A. O. Lovejoy supposed adherence to this notion a significant source for the notion of the great chain of being envisioned by such philosophers as Plato , Plotinus , and the Neoplatonics . Also see OCP . Plotinus extrapolated from the writings of Plato a comprehensive view of reality in which everything flows in a series of emanations from the central unity outwards into ever less significant things. Although human beings are typically caught up in the lowest element of nature, Plotinus supposed each to be a microcosm of the universe as a whole, capable of contemplative awareness of the divine unity. Thus, in ethics , the supposition that there are many independent sources of value and, in political life, acceptance of a multiplicity of groups with competing interests.
Epistemological pluralism is a common feature in postmodernist thought.
Also see IEP , OCP , P. J. McGrath , BGHT , Charles Ess , and ISM . Greek term for wind, breath, or spirit. Hence, pneumatology is the study of spiritual beings, the branch of theology concerned with third person of the trinity. Also see OCP and PP . Also see PP .