Was the original human form androgynous? This 19th-century philosopher certainly thought so.

Ideas & Philosophy · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Franz Xaver von Baader, a Bavarian mining engineer turned theologian, proposed that humanity was once an androgynous being. He argued that our current separation into two sexes is a consequence of the Fall, and that true love is a sacred effort to restore our original, unified, and divine nature.

Born in 1765, Franz Xaver von Baader was a polymath who balanced a career as a successful mining engineer with a deep, mystical engagement with theology. After studying medicine and engineering, he gained professional recognition for inventing a method to use sodium sulfate in glass production. Yet, his intellectual life was dominated by a rejection of the empiricism of his era, which he viewed as a slide toward atheism. Instead, he championed a return to Scholasticism, arguing that human reason cannot function in isolation from faith, church, and tradition.

Baader’s philosophy was essentially theosophical, viewing God not as an abstract substance but as a dynamic, self-generating 'primitive will.' He believed that all self-consciousness is fundamentally God-consciousness. In his view, the world of time, space, and matter only emerged after the Fall of Adam and Lucifer, serving as a divine gift to provide humanity with a path toward redemption. His ethical framework insisted that moral laws alone are insufficient; humans must actively participate in the divine order through prayer and the sacraments to overcome the effects of sin.

His most provocative concept was androgyny. Baader interpreted the first creation account in Genesis as evidence that the original human was an androgynous being, representing the true 'image and likeness of God.' He posited that the current division of sexes is a fallen state, and that marriage serves as a symbolic, sacramental attempt to restore this lost, angelic bisexuality. Though he was a prominent figure in 19th-century Catholic thought—even influencing the formation of the Holy Alliance in 1815—his later years were marked by conflict with the Church over his public opposition to its interference in civil matters, leading to an interdiction on his lectures.

Today, Baader is remembered as a bridge between the mystical traditions of Jakob Böhme and Meister Eckhart and modern academic theology. While his influence is often submerged in the work of later thinkers, his ideas on the synthesis of faith and knowledge, and his radical theories on human nature, remain a distinct, if obscure, chapter in the history of Western philosophy.

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