Ethiopian Philosophy, vol. III: The Treatise of Zärʼa Yaʽǝqob and of Wäldä Ḥǝywåt: An Analysis

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Claude Sumner, Ethiopian Philosophy, vol. III: The Treatise of Zärʼa Yaʽǝqob and of Wäldä Ḥǝywåt: An Analysis, Commercial Printing Press, Addis Ababa, 1978 PART III LITERARY FORM I. General characteristics II. Autobiographical form (Zàr'a Ya'aqob) 1. Uniqueness and relevance 2. Biography and argument 3. Coordinates of time and space 1) Chronology Note on the names of persons 2) Topography 4. Pattern of the autobiography III. Direct discourse 1. In Zàr'a Ya'aqob 1) Direct address to God 2) Discussion with himself 3) Within the autobiography 2. In Wàldà Haywat 1) Within a short story 2) Quotation of an objector and rhetorical question 3) Addressing his readers IV. Sapiential form (Walda Haywat) 1. Maxims and personal experience 2. Parallelism 1) Synonymic 2) Antithetic V. Images 1. In Zar'a Ya'aqob and in Wàlda Haywat 1) The comparison 2) The analogy of proportion 3) The metaphor 4) The metonymy 5) The portrait 2. Profile of the images in the two Hatatas and The Book of the Wise Philosophers 1) Man 2) Artificial material beings 3) Natural material beings 4) Plants and animals 3. Significance of the basic images t) The image lies deeper than the idea. 2) The Ethiopian world is a personalist one. PART IV THE PHILOSOPHY OF Zar'a Ya'aqob CHAPTER I The individuality of his philosophy .... ................ . Parallels 1) With Mani 2) With Martin Luther 3) With Herbert of Cherbury 4) With René Descartes 5) With Jean-Jacques Rousseau Spirit of his philosophy 1) Left-wing tendencies 2) Centre positions 3) Right-wing tendencies. CHAPTER II His Method .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. . .. . 88 The initial condition of his method: criticism Occasion for his inquiry: divisions The principle of his method: the hatata The inquiry as criterion The light of reason The basis of his method: the goodness of the created thing CHAPTER III The existence and nature of God............ 117 The existence of God The nature of God 1. The name of God 2. The creational Gestalt of the divine attributes 1) Creation and the attributes of God 2) Creation and the operations of God [l] The immanent operations of God 1.- The operations of God's Intellect 2.- The operations of God's Will 3:- The personal nature of God [2] The transient operations of God 1.- The Power of God 2.- The divine operation of Conservation 3.- The divine operation of Providence and Governance (1) The prevalence of the notion (2) The notion in the two Hatatas CHAPTER IV Principles of ethics ................ .. ...... .. ...... . 146 Introduction: the centrai position of ethics I, The teleological dimension J. Set of values of Zar'a Ya'aqob and Walda Haywat 1) In relation to man as an individuai 2) In relation to man as a social unit 3) In relation to the Creator 2. The striving for perfection 3, The object of man's striving: eudaemonism 11. The norm of morality 1. Good and evil 2. The standard of moral goodness 1) The objective norm [1] The proximate norm: the natural law [2] The ultimate norm: God 2) The subjective norm: labb, labbuna 3. The practical necessity of freedom 4. The obstacles to morality: ignorance, concupiscence, the world III. Sanction 1. The significance of sanction 1) Sanction and freedom 2) The meaning of trials 3) The equality of punishment with transgression of law 2. The nature of sanction 1) Reward 2) Punishment CHAPTER V Individual ethics ...... .. .................. . 178 Introduction: individual ethics I. God and man 1. Prayer 1) Prayer and the Psalms [1] Distribution of psalms according to logical and chronological order [2] Distribution of explicit quotations from the psalms in the Hatatas [3] Comparison and conclusions 1.- Criterion not synthetic, nor analytic, nor eclectic, but selective 2.- Pattern of selection: the individual, the lament 3.- Walda Haywat's selection: sapiential, not original 4.- Reason for pattern: Zer'a Ya'aqob's own internal structure 2) Theology of prayer [l] Necessity and its over-all implications [2] The "reasonableness" of prayer [3] God's response to prayer [4] Zer'a Ya'aqob's and Walda Haywat's prayer 2. Other acts of religion 1) Faith and its Gestalt 2) Fear and its Gestalt Duties towards self 1. Referring to man's soul: humility and vanity 2. Referring to man's body 1) Respect of one's life 2) Respect of one's powers of life 3) Respect of one's health 3. Referring to external goods: opposition to asceticism 1) The absurdity of fasting, the value of temperance 2) The absurdity of poverty, the evil of avarice 3) The value of work CHAPTER VI Social ethics ................................ . Introduction: Social ethics I. II. III. The creational dimension of social ethics 1. Walda Haywat's social philosophy 2. Social conformism 3. The social opposites 1) to man's nature: monastic !ife 2) to equality among men: slavery Our fellow man 1. Ethics of love 1) Its wide-ranging scope 2) The limit to love: mistrust of one's friend 2. Qualities and defects of speech 3. Prudence and justice 4. The special evil of theft Conjugal society 1. In the two Hatatas 2. Marriage, a natural institution 1) The conjugal act 2) Superiority of marriage over monasticism 3) The status of woman 3. The properties of marriage t) Its permanence, the evil of divorce 2) Monogamy, the evi! of polygamy 3) Adultery, fornication, abortion 4. The family 1) In Zer'a Ya'aqob: its conformity to reason 2) In Walda Haywat: practical items of advice for children and parents The state l. In Zar'a Ya'aqob: the king 2. In Walda Haywat: those who govern CHAPTER VII Psychology ................................ . The approach of the Hatatas and their vocabulary Creationism and psychology 1. Difference between man and the animal 2. The soul and its relation to the body 3. The immortality of the human soul Walda Haywat's concern with hygiene From organic psychology to weights and measurements CONCLUSIONS .......................... . 276 303 The divisions correspond to the headings of each of the Parts and of the Chapters. TOPICAL RELEVANCE OF Zer'a Ya'aqob .. . . .. .. .... . .. .. . 326 BIBLIOGRAPHY .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 329 I. JNDEX OF PROPER NOUNS .. . .. .. ... .. .. .. . . . .. .. . 337 1. Names of persons 1) Transcription from Ethiopic 2) Original names and transcriptions other than the author's 2. Geographical names 1) Transcription from Ethiopic 2) Original names II. INDEX OF ETHIOPIAN WORDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345 III. LIST OF KEY WORDS ................................. 348 IV. LIST OF ANALYZED CHAPTERS V. INDEX OF SUBJECTS