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Sebastian Faulks's Genesis Obsession – and Related Issues
Author(s) -
Fitzpatrick Joseph
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
new blackfriars
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1741-2005
pISSN - 0028-4289
DOI - 10.1111/nbfr.12433
Subject(s) - interpretation (philosophy) , similarity (geometry) , epistemology , darwin (adl) , philosophy , set (abstract data type) , psychology , computer science , linguistics , artificial intelligence , software engineering , image (mathematics) , programming language
In this article I discuss the surprising similarity between the interpretation of the story told in chapter 3 of Genesis put forward in several of his novels by Sebastian Faulks and my own interpretation set out in my book, The Fall and the Ascent of Man: How Genesis Supports Darwin . 1 Faulks and I argue that Genesis 3 is about hominization, the achievement of human status by a proto‐human couple by the acquisition of self‐awareness. However, that is where the similarity ends. I consider Faulks's understanding of self‐awareness to be seriously mistaken, reductive and incoherent, and I take issue with what I consider to be the consequences of this mistaken understanding.