The Story of the Tree

In the Book of Genesis in the Bible/Torah, a story is told about the first man and woman (Adam and Eve) being created by God, and living out their lives in a garden designed for them. In this garden, the story goes, were the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God tells Adam and Eve that they can eat anything in the garden, but that they need to stay away from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The serpent firstly deceives Eve, and then Adam. He tells them that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil will give them attributes of the divine.

They eat the fruit of knowledge, become aware that they are naked, and make clothing out of leaves for themselves. God asks them who told them they were naked, and the two of them admit to having eaten of the tree (during which, Adam accuses Eve of having led him astray), whereupon, they are banned from the garden, and left to survive on the virtues of their labor and wits.

The Metaphorical value of the Story

This is a story which has tremendous metaphorical value to the study of philosophy. This is an overview of some deep philosophical concepts that condense to it.

The Two Trees and Meta-ethics

What is the role of ethics? Should ethics be viewed in deontological terms, in terms of values, or in terms of utility? For some philosophers, such as Nietzsche, Jung and Coehlo, this story has tremendous ethically explanative value. Nietzsche explicitly asserts that principles of deontology castrate man’s ability to live out his values, and life experience forms and shapes those values. The Tree of Life, in this analogy, generates the values which enrich a man’s life, whereas the Tree of Knowledge generates the social deontology and norm that attempts to chain him down to the limitations imposed by others.

The Tree of Knowledge and Epistemology

Is knowledge atomic and clear and distinct, or is every concept inherently related to and dependent on every other? If knowledge is clear and distinct, then that lends itself to a very rigid, mathematical view of the world. If knowledge depends on intelligible relations, then the world is a much more ambiguous and interactive place. The former is analogous to the Tree of Knowledge, and the latter to the Tree of Life. One could use this analogy to analyze the epistemologies of many different philosophers, most notably Descartes, Aquinas, and Quine.

More to Follow

I’ve barely scratched the surface of the metaphorical wealth of this story. Consequently, I may refer back to this post in the future. It may clarify that this story is a philosophical analogy.