“It is of interest to note that in the Egyptian cosmology empiricism and metaphysics were complementary, the former affording facts about the world, and the latter serving as their ultimate explanation. The Greeks, on the other hand, eagerly accepted the materialism of the Egyptians but tended to be less enthusiastic about their metaphysics, notwithstanding the Greek interest in the Hermetica in the second century. However, the point being made is that European philosophy has inherited the tradition of the Greeks in which the material world is perceived as antithetical to the metaphysical rather than complementary to it, as was the case with the Egyptians. And it was this reunion of the two ontologies that ‘stimulates the genuine science’ in the seventeenth century. The remarkable revolution of the seventeenth century could perhaps be explained by the timely fusion of the two major traditions of Egyptian; the empirist and the metaphysical, the one kept alive by the early Greeks, the latter nurtured by the later Greeks and nurtured by the Renaissance. According to Yates: ‘It may be illuminating to view the scientific animistic universe operated by mechanics. An enquiry into both phases, and their interaction, may be a more fruitful line of historical approach to the problems raised by the science of today than the line which concentrates only on the seventeenth century triumph. Is not all science a gnosis [Intuitive apprehension of spiritual truths], an insight into the nature of the All, which proceeds by successive revelations?’” Article by Lancinay Keita title “The African Philosophical Tradition” Book title “African Philosophy” edited by Richard A. Wright Page 65
Posted on: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 13:49:16 +0000
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