Ethiopian Philosophy Flashcards
What was 17th century Ethiopian Philosophy Like?
It was Philosophy in a narrow sense and came out as professional philosophy therefore it opposed ethnophilosophy. It was different from most sub Saharan African philosophy because it was written (in Ge’ez) but also included oral tradition
Compare it to stolen legacy
It had Greek influence and Greek origins that were sometime times through Arabic, but for George hands and others it’s actually Africa who influenced Greek & them
How was their oral tradition presented?
It was presented in the form of songs, poems, proverbs and systematically translated and analyzed by Claude Sumner in 2 books:
The Book of the Wise Philosophers
The Life & Maxims of Skendes
What can be taken from The Book of Wise philosophers?
It was a collection of sayings by great philosophers of the past like Plato & Aristotle and it shows Greek influence which is the opposite of Stolen Legacy and those believers we
Who was skendes?
Kid went abroad to study @ 13 and heard the claim by philosophers that all women are prostitutes then when he returned home @ 24, he decided to see if it’s true on his mother and tricks her into sleeping with him, she kills her self, he punished himself by never speaking and answers questions in writingconcerning the mysteries of humans and the world (2 parts, 1st part 55 questions, 2nd 108)
Who were the 17th century philosophers and what did they do?
Written ethipoian ethnophilosophy attributed to Zera Yakob and to a lesser extent Walda Heywat so it was both of them and it showed religious rationalism
Who is Zera Yacob and what did he do?
He was an Ethiopian philosopher whose greatest influence was psalms, , he was a rationalist and a free thinker although Ethiopian Philosophy was closely linked to Christianity, he believed in the necessity of inquiry and he write a treatise called Hatata which promoted critical examination by intelligence or natural reason believing that false faith could not pass the rest of reason.
What did Zera Yacob focus on?
Method of knowing God (Reason)
Human nature:
-unaided by God, People are weak but can be exceptional if they exercise their willpower to the fullest capacity
- obligation of humans to is to God cuz he gave us all this intelligence so we should use it for knowing him
Theodicy and ethics are with respect to individual discretion
Equality of all humans
-pure and mutual love for everyone
Who was Walda Heywat?
He was yacob’s disciple but a little bit of a philosopher on his own.
He did not completely break away from traditional thought and believed women were inferior by nature
He focused on social ethics and psychology and his approach and language are impersonal
What was the difference between Heywat and Yacob?
Individual ethics: Yacob lives by psalms and Heywat to him it was just a. Wisdom psalm
Social ethics: Yacob was so loved and loved everyone (mutual love) while Heywat= love based on reason
Psy.: Yacob and no discussion of general or practical psy.and believed in the imm.of the human soul through the mental concept of God while Heywat did the first 5 chapters in his book on practicality is psy. And Imm. A contrast b/w humans and animals
