CHARACTERISTICS OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY
The term Greek philosophy, to begin with is a misnomer, for there is no such philosophy in
existence. The ancient Egyptians had developed a very complex religious system, called the
Mysteries, which was also the first system of salvation.
As such it regarded the human body as a prison house of the soul. Which could be liberated from
its bodily impediments, through the disciplines of the Arts and Sciences, and advanced from the
level of a mortal to that of a God. This was the notion of the summum bonum or greatest good, to
which all men must aspire, and it also became the basis if all ethical concepts. The Egyptian
Mystery System was also a Secret Order, and membership was gained by initiation and a pledge
to secrecy. The teaching was graded and delivered orally to the Neophyte; and under these
circumstances of secrecy, the Egyptians developed secret systems of writing and teaching, and
forbade their Initiates from writing what they had learnt.
After nearly five thousand years of prohibition against the Greeks, they were permitted to enter
Egypt for the purpose of their education. First through the Persian invasion and secondly through
the invasion of Alexander the Great. From the sixth century B.C. therefore to the death of Aristotle
(322 B.C.) the Greeks made the best of their chance to learn all they could about Egyptian
culture; most students received instructions directly from the Egyptian Priests, but after the
invasion by Alexander the Great, the Royal temples and libraries were plundered and pillage, and
Aristotle's school converted the library at Alexandria into a research centre. There is no wonder
then, that the production of the unusually large number of books ascribed to Aristotle has proved
a physical impossibility, for any single man within a life time.
Outside of their own mysteries the Greeks stood altogether outside of the subject. They, as
their writer's alleged, had inherited their mythology, and the names of their divinities, without
knowing their origins or meaning. They supplied their own free versions to stories of which
they never possessed the key. Whenever they met with anything they did not understand,
they turned the more effectively to their own account. All that came to hand was matter for
metaphysics, poetry, statue and picture. They sought to delight and charm the word with
these old elements of instruction, and with happy audacity supplied the place of the lost
nature of mystic meaning with the abounding grace and beauty of their art. Nothing, however,
could be more fatal than to try to read the thoughts of the remoter past through their eyes, or
to accept the embellishments of these beautifiers for interpretations of the ancient topology.
The human mind has long suffered an eclipse and been darkened and dwarfed in the shadow
of ideas, the real meaning of which has been lost to the modern. Myths and allegories whose
significance was once unfolded to initiates in the mysteries have been adopted in ignorance
and reissued as real truths directly and divinely vouchsafed to mankind for the first and only
time. The earlier religions had their myths interpreted. We have ours misinterpreted. …
Another point of considerable interest to be accounted for was the attitude of the Athenian
government towards this so-called Greek philosophy, which it regarded as foreign in origin
and treated it accordingly. Only a brief study of history is necessary to show that Greek
philosophers were undesirable citizens, who throughout the period of their investigations
were victims of relentless persecution, at the hands of the Athenian government. Anaxagoras
was imprisoned and exiled; Socrates was executed; Plato was sold into slavery and Aristotle
was indicted and exiled; while the earliest of them all, Pythagoras, was expelled from Croton
in Italy. Can we imagine the Greeks making such an about turn, as to claim the very
teachings which they had at first persecuted and openly rejected? Certainly, they knew they
were usurping what they had never produced, and as we enter step by step into our study the
greater do we discover evidence which leads us to the conclusion that Greek philosophers
were not the authors of Greek philosophy, but the Egyptian Priests and Hierophants.
Socrates: "(b. c. 470 BC, Athens -d. 399, Athens, ancient Athenian philosopher who
directed philosophical thought toward analyses of the character and conduct of human
life and who is remembered for his admonition to 'know thyself.'
Socrates wrote nothing. Information about his personality and doctrine is found chiefly in
the Dialogues of Plato and the Memorabilia of Xenophon." The New Encyclopedia
Britannica, vol. 10, Micropaedia, 15th edition, p.929.
Plato: "(b. 428/427 BC, Athens, or Aegina, Greece-d. 348/347, Athens), ancient Greek
philosopher, the second of the great trio of ancient Greeks - Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
He developed a wide-ranging system of philosophy that was strongly ethical, resting on,
resting on a foundation of eternal Ideas or Forms that represented universals or absolutes.
Platonism influenced currents of philosophy up to the 20th century." The New
Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 9, Micropaedia, 15th edition, p.509
Aristotle: "Greek ARISTOTELES (b. 384 BC, Stagira, [or Stagirus, or Stageirus],
Chalcidice, near Macedonia-d, 322, Chalcis, Euboea, Greece), ancient Greek philosopher,
scientist and organizer of research, one of the two greatest intellectual figures produced
by the Greeks (the other been Plato). He surveyed the whole field of human knowledge as
it was known in the Mediterranean world in his day; and his writings long influenced
Western and Muslim thought." The New Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 1, Micropaedia,
15th edition, p. 55
George James pointed out the absurdity of this stance. The Hebrew scriptures, called the
Septuagint, the Gospels and the Epistles were also written in Greek, why are the Greek
not claiming authorship of them? 'It is only the unwritten philosophy of the Egyptians
translated into Greek that has met such an unhappy fate: a legacy stolen by the Greeks.'
To leave no one in doubt about the cogency of his impressive arguments, chapter one
(Greek Philosophy is Stolen Egyptian Philosophy) opens with an examination of the
stories of the so- called 'Greek Philosophers. Pythagoras, after receiving his training in
Egypt, went back to his native Samos and established an Order as was the custom in
those days. Anaximander and Anaximenes, native, Parmenides, Zeno and Melissus were
all native of Ionia and they taught nothing but Egyptian mysteries. Ditto, Heraclitus,
Empedocles, Anaxagoras and Democritus. What we have to remember here is that Ionia
was a colony of Egypt (readers are directed to Martin Bernal's, Black Athena, published
by Vintage, especially vol. I, ISBN 0 09 988780 0). At the apex of its glory, Egypt held
sway over much of the known world. The Ionians would later become Persian subjects
after the fall of Egypt, before they even became Greek citizens.\
It was Herodotus who informed us that Pythagoras was allowed into Egypt only after
Polycrates (king of his native Samos and a friend of Amasis) gave him a letter of
introduction. Even after that, he had to undergo several trials including circumcision
which was compulsory - "Apud Aegyptios nullus aut geometrica studebat, aut
astonomiae secreta remabatur, nisi circumcisione suscepta,' (No one among the
Egyptians, either studied geometry, or investigated the secrets of Astronomy, unless
circumcision had been undertaken.)" - p.44. It was to Pythagoras that the world is giving
credit for a theorem that the Egyptians most certainly used in building their pyramids!
It must be borne in mind that the first lesson in the Humanities is to
make a people aware of their contribution to civilization; and the second
lesson is to teach them about other civilizations. By this dissemination
of the truth about the civilization of individual peoples, a better
understanding among them, and a proper appraisal of each other should
follow. This notion is based upon the notion of the Great Master Mind:
Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.'