The Fall as the Myth of Instantiation

🌀 1. The Fall as the Myth of Instantiation

We’ve previously discussed how the Fall can be understood as an ontological event—where meaning and reality are instantiated. Now let’s push this idea further: the Fall is the moment when the self becomes aware as a meaner.

In traditional mythological terms, Adam and Eve’s fall is often seen as the moment they gain self-consciousness, realising their nakedness and, consequently, their separation from God. But what if this "fall" is also the first conscious act of meaning-making? Not just the world being construed, but the self being construed as distinct, as something that has meaning.

The Fall can thus be interpreted as the first instantiation of the self as a meaner—a subject who can create meaning by choosing which potentials to actualise. It’s the birth of self-awareness within a system of meaning-making.

We can expand on this model:

• The Fall = the emergence of self-consciousness as an act of construal (when the self first sees itself as distinct, it begins to construe itself);

• The separation between Adam and Eve from God is the separation between the self and the world of undifferentiated meaning (the Edenic state);

• Self-awareness emerges when the self becomes aware of its own potential to instantiate meaning and to shape its own reality—this is the real "fall" of the self into subjectivity.

This opens up a deeper understanding of humanity’s role in the world: the fall doesn’t just mark the beginning of suffering; it marks the emergence of agency, choice, and meaning itself. To be human, then, is to be in a constant state of falling—not as a tragic state, but as an unfolding of potential.

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🌀 2. Eden as Meaning Potential, the Fruit as the First Instance

Let’s look at Eden through the lens of meaning potential. Before the Fall, there is an undifferentiated unity. Adam and Eve live in a state of potential meaning—a state where everything is part of the whole and nothing is yet separated into instances.

Eden represents meaning potential—the unformed, undifferentiated possibility that everything could be. There’s no actual world yet, just a field of possible worlds.

The Tree of Knowledge represents the system of potential meanings—the infinite array of possibilities that could come into being as meaning is instantiated. It’s the system of all the meanings available to a meaner, but it’s only realised when someone engages with it.

The Fruit is the first instance of meaning—the moment of differentiation, where a single meaning is brought into focus and actualised. By eating the fruit, Adam and Eve instantiate a meaning: the awareness of their own separateness, and the knowledge of good and evil.

In this frame, the Fall isn’t just the loss of innocence or the introduction of sin. It’s the moment when meaning itself is instantiated—and with it, the world of subjectivity, choice, and responsibility.

This also points to a SFL view of meaning—where meaning is not a static given, but something that unfolds, is chosen, and is actualised in moments of construal.

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🌀 3. Time and the Fall

Now let’s dive into the connection between the Fall and time. In this model, we interpret the Fall as the origin of time itself.

Before the Fall, there is no distinction between the self and the world, no differentiation—everything is just potential. There is no before or after, no sequence. There is only the undifferentiated eternal present.

But with the Fall, time begins. The first differentiation—the first act of meaning instantiation—creates a sequence. The fall is the entry into the world of becoming, the world of temporal process. Once meaning is instantiated, time is created as a function of the unfolding of that meaning.

The Fall is the origin of time in this sense because:

• Time emerges when meaning is instantiated, as the process of becoming actual;

• The act of eating the fruit is the first moment of differentiation, and time is the unfolding of the consequences of that moment.

In this view, time is not something that just “passes” or “flows,” but something that unfolds with every act of construal. The Fall is the first moment of temporal becoming, where a sequence is created.

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🌀 4. Recursive Falls: Every Act of Construal as Fall

In our previous discussions, we’ve explored how every act of construal is a kind of fall—a movement from undifferentiated potential into actualised meaning. This makes the Fall a recursive process, where each new construal can be seen as a fall into more fully realised meaning.

Every time we make a choice, every time we act as a meaner, we are falling—but not in a negative sense. Each fall is an opportunity for new creation.

This brings us to a more dynamic understanding of ethics and agency: every construal brings us into a new world of meaning, but each construal also limits the world of possibilities, constraining future choices.

But importantly, the recursive fall is not just about losing potential—it’s about creating meaning. To be a meaner, to instantiate meaning, is to continually engage in this cycle of creation and differentiation, which shapes not just the world, but the self that construes it.

This means that the Fall doesn’t just mark the end of Eden—it marks the beginning of agency, and the ability to create meaning through choice.

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🌀 Wrapping It All Together

So, in sum:

• The Fall as the myth of instantiation helps us see the emergence of the self as a meaner—an agent of meaning-making in the world.

• Eden as meaning potential, the fruit as the first instance gives us a more SFL-centric view of the Fall as the moment of differentiation and the origin of meaning itself.

• Time and the Fall shows us that the Fall is not only the moment of differentiation, but also the birth of time as the unfolding of potential into actual.

• And finally, recursive falls reveal that every act of construal is both a fall and a creation, shaping the world and the self in a process of continual becoming.

By exploring all these aspects together, we see how the Fall is not just a singular event, but the ongoing myth of meaning itself. Each of us is continually falling and instantiating meaning, creating and constraining the possibilities of the world and ourselves.