The Devolutionary Nature of Platoʼs Metaphysics Compared to Egyptian Religion, Proof of an Egyptian System of Mystery and of Grecian Origin of Speculative Philosophy

Abstract

The debate about the Egyptian origin of Grecian philosophy is waged so far on the ground of historicism and from the generalization of the concept of philosophy. This paper handles the issue on a theological point of view as an answer to the question: did Grecian speculative philosophy originate from ancient Egypt? Through a comparative study, the paper establishes the divergent natures of Egyptian religion and Platoʼs metaphysics. This divergence implies that the genesial events of Grecian speculative philosophy are not transposable on Egyptian knowledge. Moreover, both episteme do not obey equally to the epistemic evolution theorized by Auguste Comte. The paper proves the existence of a corpus of doctrines, in the religion of ancient Egypt, not found in Greece, which constitutes a system of divine mystery. However, owing to the nature of the scientificity of this corpus of religious doctrines and to the nature of their epistemology, the paper sustains that philosophy, as a speculative discipline, could not originate from ancient Egypt.