• The stone exists
• The plant exists and is living
• The animal lives and is conscious of its life in its concrete states
• Man understands the meaning of life according to ideas
• The sons of God actively realise this meaning of the perfect moral order in all things

~ Vladimir Solovyov, The Justification of the Good

Commentary

This schema separates Solovyov’s system (and ipso facto all Traditions) from humanisms. There is a spiritual Kingdom of spiritually aware men that is as different from the worlds of material men as the latter are from mammals.