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Hatata
''Hatata'' (; Ge'ez language, Ge'ez: ሐተታ ''ḥätäta'' "inquiry") is a Ge'ez term describing an investigation. The hatatas are two 17th century Ethics, ethical and rational philosophical treatises from present-day Ethiopia: One hatata is written by the Ethiopian Empire, Abyssinian philosopher Zera Yacob (philosopher), Zera Yacob (Zär'a Ya'eqob, also named Wärqe, 1599 – 1692), supposedly in 1667. The other hatata is written by his patron's son, Walda Heywat (Wäldä Hewat) some years later. Especially Zera Yacob's inquiry has been compared by scholars to Descartes'. While Zera Yacob was critical towards all religions, including the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Descartes followed a more traditional religious perspective: "A major philosophical difference is that the Catholic Descartes explicitly denounced ‘infidels’ and atheists, whom he called 'more arrogant than learned' in his ''Meditations on First Philosophy'' (1641)." Overview The hatatas became accessi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zera Yacob (philosopher)
Zera Yacob (; gez, ዘርዐ ያዕቆብ; 28 August 1599 – 1692) was an Ethiopian philosopher from the city of Aksum in the 17th century. His 1667 treatise, developed around 1630 and known in the original Ge'ez language as the '' Hatata'' (''Inquiry''), has been compared to René Descartes' ''Discours de la méthode'' (1637). For centuries, Ge'ez texts had been written in Ethiopia. Around 1510, Abba Mikael translated and adapted the Arabic ''Book of the Wise Philosophers'', a collection of sayings from the early Greek Pre-Socratics, Plato, and Aristotle via the neo-Platonic dialogues, also influenced by Arab philosophy and the Ethiopian discussions. Zera Yacob's ''Inquiry'' goes further than these former texts, as he argues in following one's natural reasoning instead of believing what one is told by others. He was a contemporary of the female activist Walatta Petros, whose biography was written in 1672. Biography Yacob was born into a farmer family near Aksum in northe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
