Ancient Egyptian philosophy

Today, there is some debate regarding ancient Egyptian philosophy and its true scope and nature.[1]

Several of the ancient Greek philosophers regarded Egypt as a place of wisdom and philosophy. Isocrates (b. 436 BCE) states in Busiris that "all men agree the Egyptians are the healthiest and most long of life among men; and then for the soul they introduced philosophy’s training…"[2] He declares that Greek writers traveled to Egypt to seek knowledge. One of them was Pythagoras of Samos who "was first to bring to the Greeks all philosophy," according to Isocrates.

Plato states in Phaedrus that the Egyptian Thoth "invented numbers and arithmetic… and, most important of all, letters.”[3] In Plato’s Timaeus, Socrates quotes the ancient Egyptian wise men when the law-giver Solon travels to Egypt to learn: "O Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always children."[4] Aristotle attests to Egypt being the original land of wisdom, as when he states in Politics that "Egyptians are reputed to be the oldest of nations, but they have always had laws and a political system."[5]

One of the Egyptian figures who often is being considered an early philosopher was Ptahhotep.[6] He served as vizier to the pharaoh in the late 25th, early 24th century BC. Ptahhotep is known for his comprehensive work on ethical behavior and moral philosophy, called The Maxims of Ptahhotep. The work, which is believed to have been compiled by his grandson Ptahhotep Tjefi, is a series of 37 letters or maxims addressed to his son, Akhethotep, speaking on such topics as daily behavior and ethical practices.[7][8]

A text for the American Philosophical Association describes the 3200-year-old text "The Immortality of Writers", or "Be a Writer" (c. 1200 BCE), as a "remarkable example of classical Egyptian philosophy."[9] The text, which Dag Herbjørnsrud attributes to the writer Irsesh, states:

"Man perishes; his corpse turns to dust; all his relatives return to the earth. But writings make him remembered in the mouth of the reader. A book is more effective than a well-built house or a tomb-chapel, better than an established villa or a stela in the temple! [...] They gave themselves a book as their lector-priest, a writing-board as their dutiful son. Teachings are their mausolea, the reed-pen their child, the burnishing-stone their wife. Both great and small are given them as their children, for the writer is chief."[10]


See also

Notes and references

  1. Juan José Castillos, Ancient Egyptian Philosophy, RSUE 31, 2014, 29-37.
  2. "Isocrates, Busiris, section 22". Retrieved 2019-06-19.
  3. "Plato, Phaedrus, section 274d". Retrieved 2019-06-19.
  4. "Plato, Timaeus, section 21e". Retrieved 2019-06-19.
  5. "Aristotle, Politics, Book 7, section 1329b". Retrieved 2019-06-19.
  6. Fontaine, Carole R. "A Modern Look at Ancient Wisdom: The Instruction of Ptahhotep Revisited." The Biblical Archaeologist 44, no. 3 (1981): 155-60. doi:10.2307/3209606.
  7. Browder, Anthony (1988). Nile Valley Contributions to Civilization. Karmaic Institute.
  8. Simpson, W. K., ed. The Maxims of Ptahhotep. Las Vegas, Nevada: Evan Blythin, 1986.
  9. Contributor, Blog (2018-12-17). "The Radical Philosophy of Egypt: Forget God and Family, Write!". Blog of the APA. Retrieved 2019-06-19.
  10. "Writings from Ancient Egypt: Be a Writer". Retrieved 2019-06-19.