Adam, Misogynist
Adam first, Eve second.
We tell each other stories with the intention that a meaning can come across, an idea is shared, an explanation is provided.
The story of Adam and Eve is perhaps the best known historical attempt to explain the structure of everything, how God put everything in place, what our place in life should be.
- Except, the story of Adam and Eve is sexist and the inherent misogynist aspect delivered in this story has not been exposed enough.
Just ignoring the story is not enough to make the misogynist aspect go away. The correct story must be told. The correct story needs to replace the incorrect story.
—
I am a structural philosopher, which means that in my work I describe structure. The goal is not only to showcase how structure informs us but also how it may instruct us.
As such, ignoring a structure does not defeat an inherently incorrect structure. An incorrect structure may remain in place as long as it is not challenged in the open. Aspects unspoken can still end up instructing us.
—
Let’s start out with counting down from 10.
Let 10 be the smallest area, 9 a bit larger, 8 larger still, and so forth until we reached the largest of levels in the end.
Counting down from 10, where did you find the largest of levels?
- Did you stop at 1, for that is the last number with an actual value?
- Or did you go all the way to 0, and made the largest level the one that does not contain a specific value?
This question is perhaps the most important structural question anyone can ask you, and I hope to make the importance clear in this short article.
—
Let’s reverse order, and start with 1, now counting to 10 instead of counting down from 10.
With 1, we can start out with God if we want to describe the origin story of people.
With 2, we find Adam.
With 3, we find Eve.
With 4, we find Cain and Abel.
- etcetera.
—
If we start out with 0, however, the structural story can take an interesting twist.
With 0, we can start out with God but this is then a God who is not physically present in the outcome.
With 1, we find the whole of creation.
With 2, we find Adam and Eve.
With 3, we find Cain and Abel.
- etcetera.
—
The difference is particularly pronounced with the presence or absence of a hierarchy.
When Adam is presented first, and Eve second, we have a patriarchal order. The man is made more important than the woman, declared by God.
Contrast this with Adam and Eve presented at the same time, declared by God. The hierarchy is not declared at the foundational level but is then an aspect that plays out later in life. It does not deny the existence of a hierarchy, but it does deny that hierarchy as foundational.
—
The most important aspect of this structural aspect is then recognizing how 0 does play a vital role in our lives.
Rubin’s Vase showcases the aspect of 0 in a very simple manner. Yet the surprise is invisible and does not become obvious until the unimportant background of both perspectives is investigated.
With viewing the image as a Vase, the unimportant background is pushed to the sides of the Vase. This means that we can view everything important as one and the same. Naturally, the Vase is made up of many specific details, and it should not be understood as all just being identical. The base and the rim of the Vase are truly distinct from one another. Yet the Vase as a whole is whole in a homogenous manner.
The surprise occurs with viewing the image as Two Faces, because the unimportant background now takes in the most important, central location. This time, we cannot turn the results into a homogenous whole, because each Face is independent of the other. For instance, some instructions are the clear opposite of the other, such as the nose of each Face pointing in an opposite direction.
The mistake in the original Adam and Eve story is therefore the starting point. By placing God in the beginning as 1, we have a Vase to deal with. Everything must fall in place as if all is one because the ultimate position is found with God instructing the entire setting.
Gödel comes to the rescue because he showed how his Incompleteness Theorems demand that formal systems can only operate within their platforms and cannot be used at the overall level of reality.
In other words, there is an important 0 in the storyline that should not be ignored, even when the required 0 is truly 0.
Adam: 1 + 0
Eve: 0 + 1
Each Face in Rubin’s Vase is a 1, and the larger truth is that both 1s cannot be made 1.
A hierarchy is a later establishment. The hierarchy in question is something that did not derive from God.
