Philosophers,
Today we conclude this week’s series exploring the voices of the often overlooked. Tomorrow we’re opening a thread so we can hear from you and include your philosophy, tradition, faith, or worldview into our two-week long series studying access and inclusion in the discipline of philosophy.
For this final episode, it’s all about the Aztec Empire. A few months ago we did a piece on Aztec happiness (it’s really interesting and there’s an audio version, highly recommend)
But today, we want to take an even broader view and think about Aztec Philosophy as a whole.
After all, they accumulated more texts than the Greeks and had developed a systematized school of thought which rivaled the evolution of European thinkers. And yet, around the globe we easily overlook their contribution and the conversations they had.
So what exactly was Aztec Philosophy?
For starters, it was a worldview based upon the observation of impermanence. This is a wisdom we see in early Hindu thought, Buddhist teachings, and Greco-Roman thought experiments like Heraclitus’s river or the Ship of Theseus. Such an idea is even found in the Persian wisdom literature of Ecclesiastes found in modern Bibles— “vanity of vanities” etc.
Interestingly, it’s not uncommon for people groups who have never interacted with another to develop the same ideas only with different, superficial forms.
In fact, the world’s great myths are exactly the result of this phenomenon—all taking on the same basic structure and intent just with different characters and details. Joseph Campbell was a researcher who spent a lifetime observing, understanding, and teaching about this phenomenon.
For the Aztecs, philosophy was largely a practice focused on finding stability and permanence in an ever-changing world. Summer today, Autumn tomorrow. Alive today, dead tomorrow. Harvest today, plant tomorrow.
These patterns imbued the Aztecs with an intimate understanding regarding this aspect of life. In fact, we still know of an ancient mantra which was common in their philosophy,
The earth is slippery, slick.
It was a simple way of grasping at the fleeting nature of life.
So, for the the Aztecs it was largely about finding things to hold onto while they lived. And they lived in a world of constant motion.
At the heart of this motion was a singular, unifying, and unstoppable energy known as teotl.
Toetl was the source of all life and sacred energy. Not unlike the concept of Chi we can observe in Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Teotl continually generates and regenerates as well as permeates, encompasses, and shapes the cosmos as part of its endless process of self-generation-and–regeneration. That which humans commonly understand as nature — e.g. heavens, earth, rain, humans, trees, rocks, animals, etc. — is generated by teotl, from teotl as one aspect, facet, or moment of its endless process of self-generation-and-regeneration.
Elizabeth Boone (1994:105) writes, “The real meaning of [teotl] is spirit — a concentration of power as a sacred and impersonal force”. According to Jorge Klor de Alva (1979:7), “Teotl …implies something more than the idea of the divine manifested in the form of a god or gods; instead it signifies the sacred in more general terms”.
[Both of these above are taken from here]
Sacred motion, impermanence, and acceptance define the Aztec way of life. This is a wisdom which we could use today as much as the Aztecs did in their time and place.
So today we honor and respect the path forged by the Aztecs and take a moment to study and respect the wisdom they have left for us.
Undoubtedly this overview but skims the surface of wisdom still available for us left by this historic empire.
If you are interested in learning more James Maffie’s Aztec Philosophy: A World in Motion is a great place to jump in.
I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s overview and our last two weeks together.
Remember, keep an eye out for tomorrow’s thread where we’re going to open it up to you. We so badly want to include your voice and perspective into the lineup as we conclude our series, so please don’t be shy about leaving a few thoughts in comments tomorrow—and share with others you think would enjoy an opportunity to engage!
Until then my friends,
Matt
Philosophy of the Aztecs