In commemoration of World Philosophy Day, a lecture entitled “The Great Masters of Ancient Egyptian Philosophy” was given by José Carlos Fernández, director of New Acropolis in Portugal.

Our Western culture has created the myth that true philosophy was born in Greece. This myth does not take into account, for example, the schools of philosophy of ancient India, even before Thales of Miletus and the other pre-Socratics.

As for other civilizations, we simply do not know how they practiced philosophy, because we do not have rational dialogues like those of Plato, or simply because what they say is so incomprehensible to us, without a guide to lead us to their symbols and concepts, that we refuse to call it philosophy.

The Egyptians practiced philosophy two thousand five hundred years before the philosophy attributed to the Greeks. In this context, they used a specific term in their treatises, which is “sebait” (“wisdom”), depicting it with the hieroglyph of the star and the door.

We know names of sages, who are as important for the Egyptians as Plato or Aristotle are for us, such as Ptahotep, Kagemni, Amenenhat, Ani, Merikara, Oncheshonky, etc., who were studied with dedication by the scribes.

The lecture ended with the reading of text excerpts by these philosophers, providing the audience with a direct contact with that timeless wisdom.