Philosophical Myths of the Fall

Philosophical Myths of the Fall
Author: Stephen Mulhall
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2007-08-26
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780691133928


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Did post-Enlightenment philosophers reject the idea of original sin and hence the view that life is a quest for redemption from it? In Philosophical Myths of the Fall, Stephen Mulhall identifies and evaluates a surprising ethical-religious dimension in the work of three highly influential philosophers--Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Wittgenstein. He asks: Is the Christian idea of humanity as structurally flawed something that these three thinkers aim simply to criticize? Or do they, rather, end up by reproducing secular variants of the same mythology? Mulhall argues that each, in different ways, develops a conception of human beings as in need of redemption: in their work, we appear to be not so much capable of or prone to error and fantasy, but instead structurally perverse, living in untruth. In this respect, their work is more closely aligned to the Christian perspective than to the mainstream of the Enlightenment. However, all three thinkers explicitly reject any religious understanding of human perversity; indeed, they regard the very understanding of human beings as originally sinful as central to that from which we must be redeemed. And yet each also reproduces central elements of that understanding in his own thinking; each recounts his own myth of our Fall, and holds out his own image of redemption. The book concludes by asking whether this indebtedness to religion brings these philosophers' thinking closer to, or instead forces it further away from, the truth of the human condition.


Philosophical Myths of the Fall
Language: en
Pages: 192
Authors: Stephen Mulhall
Categories: Philosophy
Type: BOOK - Published: 2007-08-26 - Publisher: Princeton University Press

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Did post-Enlightenment philosophers reject the idea of original sin and hence the view that life is a quest for redemption from it? In Philosophical Myths of th
Philosophical Myths of the Fall
Language: en
Pages: 137
Authors: Stephen Mulhall
Categories: Philosophy
Type: BOOK - Published: 2009-01-10 - Publisher: Princeton University Press

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Did post-Enlightenment philosophers reject the idea of original sin and hence the view that life is a quest for redemption from it? In Philosophical Myths of th
Myth and Philosophy in Plato's Phaedrus
Language: en
Pages: 309
Authors: Daniel S. Werner
Categories: Family & Relationships
Type: BOOK - Published: 2012-07-09 - Publisher: Cambridge University Press

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Examines the role of myth in Plato's Phaedrus, arguing that it leads readers to participate in Plato's dialogues and to engage in self-examination.
Myth
Language: en
Pages: 161
Authors: Robert Alan Segal
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2015 - Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

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This Very Short Introduction explores different approaches to myth from several disciplines, including science, religion, philosophy, literature, and psychology
How Philosophers Saved Myths
Language: en
Pages: 222
Authors: Luc Brisson
Categories: Philosophy
Type: BOOK - Published: 2008-11-15 - Publisher: University of Chicago Press

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This study explains how the myths of Greece and Rome were transmitted from antiquity to the Renaissance. Luc Brisson argues that philosophy was ironically respo