Philosophical Myths of the Fall (Princeton Monographs in Philosophy)

137 Pages·2005·1.11 MB·English

by  Stephen Mulhall

PHILOSOPHICAL MYTHS OF THE FALL
• •
PRINCETON MONOGRAPHS
IN PHILOSOPHY
HarryFrankfurt,Editor
• •
ThePrincetonMonographsinPhilosophyseries
offersshorthistoricalandsystematicstudies
onawidevarietyofphilosophicaltopics
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WelfareandRationalCarebySTEPHENDARWALL
ADefenseofHumeonMiraclesbyROBERTJ.FOGELIN
Kierkegaard’sConceptofDespairbyMICHAELTHEUNISSEN
Physicalism,orSomethingNearEnoughbyJAEWONGKIM
PhilosophicalMythsoftheFallbySTEPHENMULHALL
FixingFregebyJOHNP.BURGESS
PHILOSOPHICAL
MYTHS
OF THE FALL
)
S M
tephen ulhall
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON AND OXFORD
Copyright©2005byPrincetonUniversityPress
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Secondprinting,andfirstpaperbackprinting,2007
PaperbackISBN-13:978-0-691-13392-8
THELIBRARYOFCONGRESSHASCATALOGEDTHECLOTHEDITION
OFTHISBOOKASFOLLOWS
Mulhall,Stephen,1962–
Philosophicalmythsofthefall/StephenMulhall.
p. cm. —(Princetonmonographsinphilosophy)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-691-12220-2(alk.paper)
1.Fallofman.2.Philosophicalanthropology.
3.Nietzsche,FriedrichWilhelm,1844–1900—Contributionsin
philosophicalanthropology.4.Wittgenstein,Ludwig,1889–1951—
Contributionsinphilosophyandanthropology.5.Heidegger,Martin,
1889–1976—Contributionsinphilosophicalanthropology.
I.Title.II.Series.
BD450.M7742005
128′.092′2—dc22 2004054931
BritishLibraryCataloging-in-PublicationDataisavailable
ThisbookhasbeencomposedinJansonTextandCentaurdisplay
Printedonacid-freepaper.∞
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PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
C
ontents
)
Acknowledgments
vii
Introduction
1
CHAPTER1
TheMadmanandtheMasters:Nietzsche
16
CHAPTER2
TheDyingManandtheDazedAnimal:Heidegger
46
CHAPTER3
TheChildandtheScapegoat:Wittgenstein
85
Conclusion
118
Index
125
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Acknowledgments
)
IWOULDLIKETOTHANKPAULCORTOIS,andtheothermembers
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 en-
couragedmetotryoutearlyversionsofeachofthesechapters
beforeanexceptionallyknowledgeableandaccommodatingau-
dience. I would particularly like to thank Martin Stone, who
not only made my week in Leuven outside the lecture hall a
matterofrealsocialandintellectualpleasure,butalsoactedas
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 conversa-
tion 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,andfordistractingmefromthattextwheneverIemerged
frommystudy.
Aversionofchapter1appearedinTijdschriftvoorFilosofie66/1
(March 2004). Portions of chapters 2 and 3 traverse ground
that I crossed earlier in parts of my Inheritance and Originality
(OxfordUniversityPress:Oxford,2001),aswellasinHeidegger
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
andBeingandTime(Routledge:London,1996);butjuxtapos-
ing my interpretations of Heidegger and Wittgenstein with a
readingofNietzscheforthefirsttimeallowedmetoseeways
ofmodifying,refining,andgoingonfromallthreethinkersin
waysthatIcouldnototherwisehavemanaged.
PHILOSOPHICAL MYTHS OF THE FALL
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