Octavi Piulats

Egyptosophy

Original title:

Egiptosophia. Relectura del Mito al Logos

About the book:

Egyptosophy

We live in a time of Egyptomania, of widespread interest the era of the pyramids, tombs and mummies. The commercial attraction of Egyptian culture in the West is indisputable, yet we know very little about Egyptian thought in itself. In this book we have the opportunity, perhaps for the first time, to go to the very heart of the Egyptian culture which so fascinated Greek travellers and philosophers.

The work is divided into two main sections: the first section provides a succinct reconstruction of Egyptian cosmology and its anthropology centred on the myth of Osiris. The objective is to define, as far as possible, the nature of Egyptian sophia on the basis of three concepts:  initiation, mystery and illumination. Here there is an interesting discovery: the translogical model of thought. The second part provides a lucid reinterpretation of the well-known transition from Mythos to Logos, relating Egyptian sophia with the pre-Socratic Greeks and especially Thales of Miletus. The central thesis consists in showing that the relevance and influence of Egyptian thought on Greece was much greater than is normally supposed. This essay makes it clear that we need to revise the conception of  myth and and take a new look at the ancient culture of the Nile.

About the author:

Octavi Piulats has a doctorate in philosophy from the J.W. Goethe University of Frankfurt. In the nineteen eighties he was one of the founders of Integral magazine. At the present time he lectures in philosophy at the Universitat de Barcelona. Among his best-known works are Antígona y Platón en el joven Hegel, Goethe y Montserrat (Antigone and Plato in the young Hegel, Goethe and Montserrat) and Lecciones sobre Hiperion de F. Holderin (Lessons on Hyperion by F. Hölderin).