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Egypt as precursor to some of Greek Philosophy
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Doug M: [QB] The most obvious surviving example of the "wisdom" of the ancient Egyptians are texts like that of the "Instructions for Kagemni", which are the basis for the books of proverbs and psalms (the best parts of the bible IMO): [QUOTE] The humble man flourishes, and he who deals uprightly is praised. The innermost chamber is opened to the man of silence. Wide is the seat of the man cautious of speech, but the knife is sharp against the one who forces a path, that he advance not, save in due season. If you sit with a company of people, desire not the food, even if you want it; it takes only a brief moment to restrain the heart, and it is disgraceful to be greedy. A handful of water quenches the thirst, and a mouthful of melon supports the heart. A good thing takes the place of what is good, and just a little takes the place of much. .......... If you sit with a glutton, eat when he is finished; if you sit with a drunkard accept a drink, and his heart will be satisfied. Rage not against the meat in the presence of a glutton; take what he gives you and refuse it not, thinking it will be a courteous thing. [/QUOTE]From: http://nefertiti.iwebland.com/texts/kagemni.htm As for "Greek philosophy", if you really understand it, then you would know that Greek philosophy falls into the following areas: Nature of the mind, thought and speech. Nature of forms and number. Nature of "nature". Nature of the universe and creation (existence). Reason and logic. And so on. Nobody claims that the Greeks were the first to study or inquire about such things, but that hey were "rational" in their approach. The point being that earlier civilizations were more "superstitious" in their approach to the inner workings of the universe or that their wisdom was encroached in deep religious symbolism. But the point is that the ideas espoused by the Greeks are THE SAME ideas that are found in older civilizations. The debate is therefore whether the so-called "rational" approach of the Greeks makes their ideas more original or not. Likewise, the REAL REASON the Greeks get so much credit is because they wrote stuff down and it survived(being more recent). Aristotles works are mostly dialogues committed to paper. And Socrates himself said that dialog was the most ancient form of "wisdom". Therefore, we know that more ancient societies have been discussing the nature of the universe and creation in the form of dialogs, or mouth to ear. On top of that, most of the writings of civilizations of ancient Egypt and elsewhere have not survived and the most durable work from Egypt is from tombs and temples, which were filled with symbolism and ritual. But from the wisdom literature and the other stuff that has survived, it is clear to see that much of what the Greeks get credit for already existed. From the list of things above we can easily use Egypt as one example of where the philosophy of Greece is nothing new at all: Nature of the mind, thought and speech. Thoth and Ptah as deities of speech, mind and writing are symbolic of the power of mind, speech and writing. They represent that the Egyptians understood the power and importance of such things in the development and sustainment of "organized" societies. The key here is that these represent principles of "organization" as Thoth, Djehuti and Ptah represent a universe that is ordered based on the emanations of the "divine mind" or creative force. These emanations can be called the "laws" of the Universe as they form the basis of life as we know it. Hence humans must use their minds to organize themselves and to maintain such organization through writing and speech, which become the LAWS of the society. Many of the early wisdom texts of Egypt are explicitly written with the idea that Ptah grants the power of divine speech and authority to the Pharaoh (force of authority in law through writing and speech). Nature of forms and number. In ancient Egyptian art and architecture you see the nature of forms and number. These themes are not only reflected in the architecture itself but also the art on the walls. Form and number are the domain of the scribes and the chief dieties Djehuti and his wife. Form and number therefore were considered the building blocks of the material universe. Khnum is one prime example of the idea of form, as khnum is the one who forms the gods from clay on the potter's wheel. Khnum and ptah are the patrons of craftsmen (those who form things) along with Djehuti, the deity of counting and numbers, as the patron of architects and scribes. Nature of "nature". The word nature actually derives from the word "netjer" or neter which was considered an aspect of the divine creative force in the universe. The plethora of neter in Egyptian cosmology are all related to the various demiurges or primeval forces in nature as the children of creation. These children were always created in twos, representing duality, opposites and balance, which again is an expression of the theory of form and number in nature. Nature of the universe and creation. All the ancient dieties of Egyptian cosmology were related to the first creation. Each demiurge represented some aspect of the creative force: Ra (force of emanation or radiation of energies). Ptah (force of mind and will), Atum (force of virbration and the unseen force (atoms,etc)) and so on. Their associated neter and other deities represent the fullness of creation as an expression of divine will power and force, manifest through the physical elements of nature (earth, wind, fire, water). Reason and logic. The multitude of ancient Egyptian wisdom texts shows that the AE had a firm grasp of and understanding of reason and logic. Not only the fact that they developed practical applications of theories of number in the development of mathematics and architecture. The fact that the theorems behind such concepts don't exist does not mean that the Egyptians did not understand abstract theory. And such theories came about because of trial and error and the accumulation of years of experience which leads to the observations of patterns in numbers. Obviously this has been happening long before the Greeks ever were thought about. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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