Mulhall - Philosophical Myths of the Fall

PHILOSOPHICAL MYTHS OF THE FALL

PRINCETON MONOGRAPHS

IN PHILOSOPHY

Harry Frankfurt, Editor

The Princeton Monographs in Philosophy series

offers short historical and systematic studies

on a wide variety of philosophical topics

Justice Is Conflict by STUART HAMPSHIRE

Liberty Worth the Name by GIDEON YAFFE

Self-Deception Unmasked by ALFRED R. MELE

Public Goods, Private Goods by RAYMOND GEUSS

Welfare and Rational Care by STEPHEN DARWALL

A Defense of Hume on Miracles by ROBERT J. FOGELIN

Kierkegaards Concept of Despair by MICHAEL THEUNISSEN

Physicalism, or Something Near Enough by JAEWONG KIM

Philosophical Myths of the Fall by STEPHEN MULHALL

Fixing Frege by JOHN P. BURGESS

PHILOSOPHICAL

MYTHS

OF THE FALL

Stephen Mulhall

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON AND OXFORD

Copyright 2005 by Princeton University Press

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Second printing, and first paperback printing, 2007

eISBN: 978-1-40082-665-0

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of This Book as Follows

Mulhall, Stephen, 1962

Philosophical myths of the fall / Stephen Mulhall.

p.cm. (Princeton monographs in philosophy)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Fall of man. 2. Philosophical anthropology.

3. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 18441900Contributions inphilosophical anthropology. 4. Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 18891951Contributions in philosophy and anthropology. 5. Heidegger, Martin, 18891976Contributions in philosophical anthropology.

I. Title. II. Series.

BD450.M774 2005

128'..092'2dc222004054931

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3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Contents

Index

Acknowledgments

I WOULD LIKE TO THANK PAUL CORTOIS, and the other members of the Institute of Philosophy and the Faculty of Theology at the Catholic University of Leuven, who kindly invited me to give a series of lectures there, as part of a larger project on religion in which they are collaborating with the Religious Studies department at Antwerp University, and thereby encouraged me to try out early versions of each of these chapters before an exceptionally knowledgeable and accommodating audience. I would particularly like to thank Martin Stone, who not only made my week in Leuven outside the lecture hall a matter of real social and intellectual pleasure, but also acted as respondent to one of my lectures; and thanks are also due to William Desmond and Rudi Visker, my other respondents, with whom I also managed to combine stimulating conversation with good Belgian beer. Thanks, as always, go to Alison, Eleanor, and Matthew, for allowing me to spend the time needed to transform the text of my Leuven lectures into this book, and for distracting me from that text whenever I emerged from my study.

A version of chapter 1 appeared in Tijdschrift voor Filosofie 66/1 (March 2004). Portions of chapters 2 and 3 traverse ground that I crossed earlier in parts of my Inheritance and Originality (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2001), as well as in Heideggerand Being and Time (Routledge: London, 1996); but juxtaposing my interpretations of Heidegger and Wittgenstein with a reading of Nietzsche for the first time allowed me to see ways of modifying, refining, and going on from all three thinkers in ways that I could not otherwise have managed.

PHILOSOPHICAL MYTHS OF THE FALL

Introduction

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said untothe woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit ofthe tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hathsaid, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall notsurely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eatthereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree tobe desired to make one wise, she took of the fruitthereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husbandwith her; and he did eat.

And the eyes of them both were opened, and theyknew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leavestogether and made themselves aprons.

And they heard the voice of the Lord God walkingin the garden in the cool of the day; and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord Godamongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord Godcalled unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou?

And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and Iwas afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat?

And the man said, the woman whom thou gavest tobe with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this thatthou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Becausethou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust thou shalt eat all the days of thy life; and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head,and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thysorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband,and he shall rule over thee.

And unto Adam he said, Because thou has hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shaltthou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and this-tles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat theherb of the field; in the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of itwast thou taken: for dust thou art and unto dust shaltthou return.