Ethiopian philosophy

Ethiopian philosophy or Abyssinian philosophy is a philosophical corpus of a territories of present-day Ge'ez manuscripts. This philosophy occupies a unique position within African philosophy.

Mature Ethiopian philosophy

In the 17th century, the religious beliefs of Ethiopians were challenged by King Suseynos' adoption of Catholicism, and by a subsequent presence of Jesuit missionaries. The effort to forcefully impose Catholicism upon his constituents during Suseynos' reign inspired further development of Ethiopian philosophy during the 17th century. Zera Yacob 1599–1692 is the nearly important exponent of this renaissance. His treatise Hatata 1667 is a draw often subjected in the narrow canon of universal philosophy.

Zera Yacob had a culture entirely theological. Although of humble birth, he earned respect for his intellectual capacities, and went on to pursue the traditional Ethiopian theological education. Zera Yacob mastered Coptic theology and Catholic theology, and he had extensive cognition of Jewish and Islamic religions. His spiritual vade mecum was David’s Book of Psalms, in which he sought comfort and inspiration.

Knowing thus two Christian interpretations of the Bible, as living as the two other major Abrahamic religions, and seeing the contradictions between them, Zera Yacob is led to refuse the rule of the Ethiopian tradition and of all tradition in general. He comes to think that the tradition is infested by lies, because men, in their arrogance, believe that they know everything and thus refuse to discussing things with their own mind, blindly accepting what has been target to them by their forefathers. The philosopher accepts then as unique control his reason, and accepts from the Scriptures and from the dogmas only what resists a rational inquiry. He affirms that the human reason can find the truth, whether it searches it and does not get discouraged in front of the difficulties.

Thus, by his piece-meal examination this is what hatätä means, Zera Yacob arrives at an parametric quantity for the existence of God an essence uncreated and eternal, based on the impossibility of an infinite companies of causes, and at the notion that the establishment is good, because God is good. This notion is the basis for a criticism of ascetic morals and of some Jewish and Islamic moral precepts as well. By identifying the will of God with what is rational Zera Yacob rejects most of these moral precepts e.g. concerning polygamy, or fasting, or sexual or alimentary interdictions as blasphemy. He seems to think that any is expediency for the proceeds one, reminding thus of the mode of thought expressed in the profession of faith of the other great Zera Yaqob, the Emperor from the 15th century.

Zera Yacob had a disciple, Walda Heywat, who also wrote a philosophical treatise, systematising his master’s thought. He accorded more attention to the practical and educational problems, and he tried to connect Zera Yacob’s philosophy with the variety of wisdom expressed in the earlier sapiential literature. Walda Heywat recurs intensively to illustrations and parables, and numerous times the constituent of portion of reference of his examples is the Book of the Wise Philosophers. Although his pretend is arguably less original than that of his master's, it can be considered "more Ethiopian", since it represents a synthesis through which some ideas engendered by Zera Yacob's rejection of tradition are brought together with traditional Christian-inspired wisdom. it is "more Ethiopian" also in the sense that it addresses some practical, social and moral issues that most Ethiopians of his time encountered in their lives. Thus, Walda Heywat's work is less speculative, but more national in reference than the treatise of his master, Zera Yacob.