In virtually any contemporary history or anthology
of philosophy, no mention will be made of ancient
Egyptian philosophy. The first task of the
course is to review the histories of definitions
of philosophy to understand possible reasons
for this omission. Of particular importance
will be a brief survey of other ancient philosophies
conventionally included in the canon of world
philosophy, such as Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist,
and pre-Socratic philosophies. The first part
of the course will review the origins and nature
of the most basic questions philosophy raises
for students who do not have an extensive background
in philosophy: What is there in the universe
or outside of it? What is knowledge, how may
we reach the truth? How should we decide what
is valuable? How should we live our lives?
The first part of the course will furnish broad
outlines of the four branches of philosophy
that treat these questions: ontology, epistemology,
axiology, and praxiology. The special interest
of this part of the course will be the examination
of the range of answers to these questions
across several cultures--African, European,
and Asian--and to ask whether these questions
and answers are universal or uniquely defined
in the context of specific cultures.
The second part of the course will consider
the most distinctive aspect of ancient Egyptian
philosophy—its holistic nature. Holism
can be understood in at least three different
ways: a philosophy that views all existence
as a single being, a postulation of a single
entity which gives birth to all existence,
a commitment to join together what has been
excluded (Marietta 1995, Verharen 2006). This
part of the course will be devoted to close
readings of ancient Egyptian writings such
as the Book of Coming Forth by Day and classical
pyramid texts.
The third part of the course will analyze
interpretations of ancient Egyptian philosophy
by renowned Egyptologists such as Erik Hornung
(Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One
and the Many) and Christiane Zivie-Coche (Gods
and Men in Egypt).
