AXIOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS OF KNOWLEDGE AND COGNITION IN THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN PRE-PHILOSOPHY

Abstract

Background. There are a lot of revisions of methodological criteria of studying of antiquity, deconstructions, even destructions of previous cognitive paths. So it is interesting to recover sources of epistemological and axiological wholeness of the main ideas of Egyptian Weltanschauung concerning problems of human soul, human fate, time and eternity. We emphasized the explication of some worldview models of the Egyptian cognition style and its value interpretation too. Methods. First of all we used J. Assmann’s approach to the studying of Egyptian mythology with revealing of value and cognition constants, worldview conceptions which we should interpret as philosophical ideas. Also we have based on D. Chyzhevskyi’s methodological way of the investigation of the history of philosophy neither as entirely rationalistic phenomenon with elimination of philosophy from a lot of cultures and epochs nor entirely culturally engaged approach when it is assumed philosophy is in each culture by default because there are worldview meditations within these cultures. We have made an attempt to explain some epistemological manifestations of the ancient Egyptian culture by reconstruction and interpretation of implications of Egyptian literature and mythology. Results. A key phenomenon of Egyptian eschatology — "The Book of the Dead" — is mostly a book about life, even eternity, about defeating death through cognition and moral development. The Kingdom of Maat is the realm of moral truth. Osiris is also an idea of truth, moral dignity and resurrection through rebirth. The paradise fields in Egyptian mythology are called the Island of Truth. The structure of the human soul contains seven levels of self-cognition and self-improvement — from the material body to the eternal kind of soul. Each kind of soul has its relevant kind of mind. There are two kinds of time in ancient Egyptian mythology — neheh as circular and regenerative time, and djet as the counter-concept of cyclical time. Conclusions. Although ancient Egyptian culture did not transform worldview meditations into fully philosophical knowledge, it nevertheless provided different cultural material (for example, images of Osiris or Thoth) for subsequent philosophical interpretations and relevant theoretical reconstructions.