Scattered
throughout this composition are several entries which can be grouped together
under the tentative title “The Life And Death Of Adam And Eve.” Considering that this subject is
of interest to me, evidence of which is amply represented among these thoughts
and sketches, it may potentially become the subject of an important
good-sized essay.
Most
of these entries use Adam and Eve as a sub-theme, and the present entry
is no exception. Its principal subject is the concept of freedom, “original
freedom,” and how this freedom affects the big picture and the
course of events. At the end of this entry, I turn to making up a short list of
freedom-related topics, to use it as a memo to myself for future
explorations. The reader will appreciate the overall tentative character of
this entry, and, hopefully, would not mind its correspondingly tentative
structure.
In
the writing of this entry, I have probably neglected to make it quite clear
that theologically and therefore philosophically, the freedom of choice and
the whole package of freedoms it arrives with, is, in my opinion, a very good
thing. Or else, absent this freedom, it would have seemed that the concept of freedom
was, on the whole, a negligent mistake on the part of God’s creation, or some
alternative plan, or such. One must be clear and forceful on this subject.
Without the existence of freedom-as-such, the very concepts of good and
evil would instantly have been rendered meaningless and irrelevant. And,
almost paradoxically, the absence of freedom-as-such would not have been
such a bad thing, after all, but only a morally-neutral thing. Thus, it is only
the existence of freedom in creation, which begets good and evil, and, from
then on, it would call itself good by virtue of the concepts it itself has
generated.
The
following is a shorthand list of philosophical questions, all united by their freedom
theme, which have been popping in my mind, while writing this entry. They
are just questions, kind of memory prompters for the future, which I may or may
not consider later on, and as soon as I pick them out of this lineup, to write
something on the subject, I should probably remove them from this list as well,
so that only such questions will remain on this list which are still waiting
for their turn in my attention.
All
sorts of freedoms... Freedom of Adam and Eve... What kind of freedom did God
give Adam and Eve? What kind of freedom did the Serpent give Adam and Eve? [Nota
bene this Nietzsche’s naughty teaser that “Theologically
speaking, it was God himself who at the end of his days’ work lay down as a
serpent under the tree of knowledge: thus He recuperated from being God. He had
made everything too beautifully... The devil is merely the leisure of God on
that seventh day.” (in Ecce Homo, Beyond Good and Evil,
Section 2)] What kind of freedom caused the Original Sin? Did Adam have
Freedom from God and the Serpent, in the Garden of Eden? The essence of Hegel
is the State taking care of Man, while Man gives up his freedom to the State.
Is there a parallel here to God and Adam before the Fall, and how can we
possibly apply moral standards to such a relationship? Freedom of choice: boon
or bane? Is there such a thing as Freedom from Society? …And, once again, the
Greatest of them all, Freedom of Thought…
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