Nicolai Hartmann - Levels of Reality

Levels of Reality

Hartmann's levels of reality are: (1) the inorganic level (German: anorganische Schicht), (2) the organic level (organische Schicht), (3) the psychical/emotional level (seelische Schicht) and (4) the intellectual/cultural level (geistige Schicht). In the Structure of the Real World (Der Aufbau der realen Welt), Hartmann postulates four laws that apply to the levels of reality.

  1. The law of recurrence: Lower categories recur in the higher levels as a subaspect of higher categories, but never vice versa.
  2. The law of modification: The categorial elements modify in their recurrence in the higher levels (they are shaped by the characteristics of the higher levels).
  3. The law of the novum: The higher category is composed of a diversity of lower elements, but it is a specific novum that is not included in the lower levels.
  4. The law of distance between levels: Since the different levels do not develop continuously but in leaps, they can be clearly distinguished.

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