The Adventure of the Human Intellect: Self, Society, and the Divine in Ancient World Cultures (Ancient World: Comparative Histories)

__The____Adventure of the Human Intellect__ presents the latest scholarship on the beginnings of intellectual history on a broad scope, encompassing ten eminent ancient or early civilizations from both the Old and New Worlds. * Borrows themes from __The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man__ (1946), updating an old topic with a new approach and up-to-date theoretical underpinning, evidence, and scholarship * Provides a broad scope of studies, including discussion of highly developed ancient or early civilizations in China, India, West Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Americas * Examines the world view of ten ancient or early societies, reconstructed from their own texts, concerning the place of human beings in society and state, in nature and cosmos, in space and time, in life and death, and in relation to those in power and the world of the divine * Considers a diversity of sources representing a wide array of particular responses to differing environments, circumstances, and intellectual challenges * Reflects a more inclusive and nuanced historiographical attitude with respect to non-elites, gender, and local variations * Brings together leading specialists in the field, and is edited by an internationally renowned scholar Title Page 5 Copyright Page 6 Contents 7 Notes on Contributors 9 Series Editor’s Preface 13 Preface and Acknowledgments 15 Introduction 17 Chapter 1 A Critique of the Cognitive-historical Thesis of The Intellectual Adventure 32 Notes 41 References 43 Chapter 2 The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man: Revisiting a Classic 45 I Introduction 45 II Genesis 45 III Orientation: the book as a whole 53 1 Structure 53 2 Mythopoeia 55 IV Assessment 70 Abbreviations 76 Notes 77 References 83 Chapter 3 The World of Ancient Egyptian Thought 89 Cosmology and cosmogony 91 Gods and god 95 The individual in Egyptian thought 97 Order and chaos 101 Conclusion 102 Abbreviations 103 Notes 103 References 103 Further reading 104 Chapter 4 On Speculative Thought in Ancient Mesopotamia 105 Mesopotamian metaphysics 106 Mesopotamian physics 107 Mesopotamian politics and ethics 109 Authority and problem-solving 113 Authority and innovation 115 Modes of speculative thought 116 The individual 116 Conclusion 117 Note 117 References 117 Chapter 5 Self, Substance, and Social Metaphysics: The Intellectual Adventures of Israel and Judah 121 Israel in Judah’s hall of mirrors 122 The intelligentsia’s toolkits 124 The cuneiform substratum 125 West Semitic means to national scripts 126 Social metaphysics 127 The body politic 127 Tohû, bohû, man, woman 129 The strong anthropic principle 131 The social god and the social contract 134 A once and future adventure 137 Notes 138 References 140 Chapter 6 Ancient Greece: Man the Measure of All Things 143 Prologue 143 Archaic Greece: man the competitor 144 Classical Athens: man the “political being” 153 Abbreviations 160 Notes 161 References 161 Chapter 7 The Thought-World of Ancient Rome: A Delicate Balancing Act 165 Note 181 References 181 Further reading 181 Chapter 8 Self, Cosmos, and Agency in Early China 183 Introduction 183 The Chinese written record 184 Metaphysics 186 State and society 187 Ethics and self-cultivation 189 Transforming qi 190 Fate and free will 191 Autonomy and the mantic traditions 194 Appendix 1: Timeline 196 Appendix 2: Major excavated texts (in order of date) 196 Notes 197 References 199 Chapter 9 Vedic India: Thinking and Doing 201 X.129 Creation (trans. J.P. Brereton) 211 X.90 The Man (trans. J.P. Brereton) 211 References 212 Further reading 213 Chapter 10 “Chronosophy” in Classic Maya Thought 214 Abbreviation 224 Notes 224 References 227 Chapter 11 The Word, Sacrifice, and Divination: Aztec Man in the Realm of the Gods 232 Introduction 232 The word, sacrifice, and creation of man 234 Aztec kingship: sacrifice and identity 241 The calendar, divination, destiny, and free will 246 Conclusion 250 Notes 251 References 252 Chapter 12 Night Thoughts and Spiritual Adventures: Native North America 255 I 255 II 258 III 264 IV 267 V 272 Notes 273 References 273 Further reading 274 Index 276 EULA 283 "In 1946, a series of lectures by scholars affiliated with the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute were assembled into a volume titled The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man. The lectures explored themes of intellectual history and the development of abstract reasoning among the Egyptians, Mesopotamians and Hebrews. In The Adventure of the Human Intellect, fourteen scholars, led by editor Kurt A. Raaflaub, engage with the themes of that nearly seventy year old volume to bring its ideas into the twenty-first century. This work offers a new appraoch to an old debate about the beginnings of intellectual history and rational thinking, bring to bear modern theoretical approaches, up-to-date evidence, and the results of recent scholarship. The work is broader in scope than the 1946 original, including a discussion of civilizations from both the Old and New Worlds. It examines the worldviews of ten ancient or early societies, reconstructed from their own texts, concerning the place of human beings in society and state, in nature and cosmos, in space and time, in life and death, and in relation to those in power and the world of the divine, and illuminates a wide array of responses to particular environments, circumstances and challenges. The Adventure of the Human Intellect focuses on ancient responses to widely differing conditions, as they manifest in social practices and cultural products, and in which relationships between religions, sciBack cover. Publisher's website 'The Adventure of the Human Intellect' presents the latest scholarship on the beginnings of intellectual history on a broad scope, encompassing ten eminent ancient or early civilisations from both the Old and New Worlds. The Adventure of the Human Intellect presents the latest scholarship on the beginnings of intellectual history on a broad scope, encompassing ten eminent ancient or early civilizations from both the Old and New Worlds. Borrows themes from The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man (1946), updating an old topic with a new approach and up-to-date theoretical underpinning, evidence, and scholarship Provides a broad scope of studies, including discussion of highly developed ancient or early civilizations in China, India, West Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Americas Examines the world view of ten ancient or early societies, reconstructed from their own texts, concerning the place of human beings in society and state, in nature and cosmos, in space and time, in life and death, and in relation to those in power and the world of the divine Considers a diversity of sources representing a wide array of particular responses to differing environments, circumstances, and intellectual challenges Reflects a more inclusive and nuanced historiographical attitude with respect to non-elites, gender, and local variations Brings together leading specialists in the field, and is edited by an internationally renowned scholar

The Adventure of the Human Intellect presents the latest scholarship on the beginnings of intellectual history on a broad scope, encompassing ten eminent ancient or early civilizations from both the Old and New Worlds.

• Borrows themes from The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man (1946), updating an old topic with a new approach and up-to-date theoretical underpinning, evidence, and scholarship
• Provides a broad scope of studies, including discussion of highly developed ancient or early civilizations in China, India, West Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Americas
• Examines the world view of ten ancient or early societies, reconstructed from their own texts, concerning the place of human beings in society and state, in nature and cosmos, in space and time, in life and death, and in relation to those in power and the world of the divine
• Considers a diversity of sources representing a wide array of particular responses to differing environments, circumstances, and intellectual challenges
• Reflects a more inclusive and nuanced historiographical attitude with respect to non-elites, gender, and local variations
• Brings together leading specialists in the field, and is edited by an internationally renowned scholar

The Adventure of the Human Intellect" presents the latest scholarship on the beginnings of intellectual history on a broad scope, encompassing ten eminent ancient or early civilizations from both the Old and New Worlds. Borrows themes from The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man (1946), updating an old topic with a new approach and up-to-date theoretical underpinning, evidence, and scholarship. Providing a broad scope of studies, including discussion of highly developed ancient or early civilizations in China, India, West Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Americas, it examines the world view of ten ancient or early societies, reconstructed from their own texts, concerning the place of human beings in society and state, in nature and cosmos, in space and time, in life and death, and in relation to those in power and the world of the divine. It considers a diversity of sources representing a wide array of particular responses to differing environments, circumstances, and intellectual challenges, and reflects a more inclusive and nuanced historiographical attitude with respect to non-elites, gender, and local variations The Adventure of the Human Intellect" presents the latest scholarship on the beginnings of intellectual history on a broad scope, encompassing ten eminent ancient or early civilizations from both the Old and New Worlds.0Borrows themes from The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man (1946), updating an old topic with a new approach and up-to-date theoretical underpinning, evidence, and scholarship. Providing a broad scope of studies, including discussion of highly developed ancient or early civilizations in China, India, West Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Americas, it examines the world view of ten ancient or early societies, reconstructed from their own texts, concerning the place of human beings in society and state, in nature and cosmos, in space and time, in life and death, and in relation to those in power and the world of the divine. It considers a diversity of sources representing a wide array of particular responses to differing environments, circumstances, and intellectual challenges, and reflects a more inclusive and nuanced historiographical attitude with respect to non-elites, gender, and local variations