"The calendar we use today derives directly from discoveries made in pharaonic times. The Egyptian system of time measurement was adopted by the Romans, and thus became a universal acquisition of civilization. This was not the only major contribution of Egyptian philosophy to the general history of humanity....
"Three seasons, ..., each lasting four months, provided the recurring rhythm for the work and lives of the inhabitants of ancient Egypt.... 'Akhet' was the flood time; ...'peret' the time of appearance,' when the fields emerged from the floodwaters; ...'shewm' literally, 'there is no water,' was the dry hot summer....
"In light of the above references, it is easy to recognize the Egyptians achieved a high degree of expertise in the understanding of time, far ahead of any people in so-called classical antiquity. Their astronomical skills, their construction of the pyramids, their mummification of the dead , their ancient Osirian myth, their rituals for the periodic renewal of Pharaoh's vital energy--all this reflects a philosophy deeply concerned with the comprehension and use of time. In the unfolding of human destiny this was an extraordinary endeavor , immensely complex, a development possible only in the fullness of time. So time took on a cosmic aspect, and global time was conceived as an eternity constantly flowing into the present, to become the past.
"Time, thus understood , was a dynamic process, periodically coming and going, always keeping humanity in touch with the totality of the cosmos. In pharaonic philosophy this connection is essential. Time, a functional process beginning with the very origins of the world, reintegrates humanity into the totality of the universe. All the great rhythmic periodicities of life (years, seasons, months, the ritual schedules of work, worship and celebration ) are so many affirmations of human destiny within the flow of time. Everything happens inside of time; conversely, time imparts value and meaning to all that happens. In sum, time maintains all, time stabilizes all....
"Ever since the time of pharaonic Egypt, the black people of Africa have conceived of time as a trans-empirical norm. Africanist anthologists refuse, to this day, to register this fact.
"Yet the axiom is inescapable: it is hard to reflect on time and its transitive nature, without an affirmation of the reflecting self, without thinking of one's own freedom. The linkage of the humanity and the cosmos , the personal and the general, necessarily implies a transition to a higher mental level. That accomplishment can only be called thought, philosophy, a reflection of the world, the cosmic whole, this totality within which humans live and die.
"Basically, all philosophy begins with an extraordinary boldness : to think of the organization of time, to speculate about the origin of everything, to state opinions about what the cosmos was at the beginnings, to become conscious of one's ideas as an independent ideational system, facing the universal Whole. All this takes stupendous daring. The ancient Egyptians conceived a way of organizing time , as we have seen from reading a specific text above."
P. 130-133, "Of Time and the Heavens," AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY : THE PHARAONIC PERIOD 2780-330 B.C. by Theophile Obenga (2004)
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
"OF TIME AND THE HEAVENS"--OBENGA
"The calendar we use today derives directly from discoveries made in pharaonic times. The Egyptian system of time measurement was adopted by the Romans, and thus became a universal acquisition of civilization. This was not the only major contribution of Egyptian philosophy to the general history of humanity....
"Three seasons, ..., each lasting four months, provided the recurring rhythm for the work and lives of the inhabitants of ancient Egypt.... 'Akhet' was the flood time; ...'peret' the time of appearance,' when the fields emerged from the floodwaters; ...'shewm' literally, 'there is no water,' was the dry hot summer....
"In light of the above references, it is easy to recognize the Egyptians achieved a high degree of expertise in the understanding of time, far ahead of any people in so-called classical antiquity. Their astronomical skills, their construction of the pyramids, their mummification of the dead , their ancient Osirian myth, their rituals for the periodic renewal of Pharaoh's vital energy--all this reflects a philosophy deeply concerned with the comprehension and use of time. In the unfolding of human destiny this was an extraordinary endeavor , immensely complex, a development possible only in the fullness of time. So time took on a cosmic aspect, and global time was conceived as an eternity constantly flowing into the present, to become the past.
"Time, thus understood , was a dynamic process, periodically coming and going, always keeping humanity in touch with the totality of the cosmos. In pharaonic philosophy this connection is essential. Time, a functional process beginning with the very origins of the world, reintegrates humanity into the totality of the universe. All the great rhythmic periodicities of life (years, seasons, months, the ritual schedules of work, worship and celebration ) are so many affirmations of human destiny within the flow of time. Everything happens inside of time; conversely, time imparts value and meaning to all that happens. In sum, time maintains all, time stabilizes all....
"Ever since the time of pharaonic Egypt, the black people of Africa have conceived of time as a trans-empirical norm. Africanist anthologists refuse, to this day, to register this fact.
"Yet the axiom is inescapable: it is hard to reflect on time and its transitive nature, without an affirmation of the reflecting self, without thinking of one's own freedom. The linkage of the humanity and the cosmos , the personal and the general, necessarily implies a transition to a higher mental level. That accomplishment can only be called thought, philosophy, a reflection of the world, the cosmic whole, this totality within which humans live and die.
"Basically, all philosophy begins with an extraordinary boldness : to think of the organization of time, to speculate about the origin of everything, to state opinions about what the cosmos was at the beginnings, to become conscious of one's ideas as an independent ideational system, facing the universal Whole. All this takes stupendous daring. The ancient Egyptians conceived a way of organizing time , as we have seen from reading a specific text above."
P. 130-133, "Of Time and the Heavens," AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY : THE PHARAONIC PERIOD 2780-330 B.C. by Theophile Obenga (2004)
