[D66] [JD: 15] TEOTL

[R.O.]

[...]

  Aztec  philosophy  need  not  ape  European  philosophy  in order to 
count as “real” philosophy. There is no law of reason, thought, or 
culture requiring that all peoples think alike or follow the same path 
of philosophical development.It  is  also  sometimes  argued  that  the 
Aztecs’  religiosity  precluded  their  thinking philosophically. 
Philosophy, as the West’s self-narrative often goes, begins  where 
religion  ends.  This  view  assumes,  however,  that  religion  and 
philosophy are mutually exclusive. The Aztecs’ religiosity no more 
precluded their doing philosophy than did the religiosity of St. 
Augustine, Maimonides, St. Aquinas, Ockham, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, or 
Whitehead (to name only a  few  bona  fide  philosophers  by  Western 
lights).


--p.7 Ibid

On 09-03-2021 19:39, R.O. wrote:
> TEOTL
> 
> 
> At the heart of Aztec metaphysics stands the onto-logical thesis that 
> there exists just one thing: continually dynamic, vivifying, 
> self-generating and self-regenerating sacred power, force, or energy. 
> The Aztecs referred to this energy as teotl. Teotl is identical with 
> real-ity per se and hence identical with everything that exists. What’s 
> more, teotl is the basic stuff of reality. That which is real, in other 
> words, is both identi-cal with teotl and consists of teotl. Aztec 
> metaphysics thus holds that there exists numericallyonly one thing – 
> energy – as well as only one kindof thing – energy. Reality consists of 
> just one thing, teotl, and this one thing is metaphysi-cally 
> homogeneous. Reality consists of just one kind of stuff: power or force. 
> Taking a page from the metaphysical views of contemporary 
> Mixtec-speaking Nuyootecos of the Mixteca Alta, we might think of teotl 
> as something akin to electricity. Nuyootecos speak of a single, 
> all-encompassing energy, yii, which they liken to electricity.2What’s 
> more, the Aztecs regarded teotl as sacred. Although everywhere and in 
> everything, teotl presents itself most dramatically – and is accordingly 
> sensed most vibrantly by humans – in the vivifying potency of water, 
> sexual activity, blood, heat, sunlight, jade, the singing of birds, and 
> the iridescent blue-green plumage of the quetzal bird. As the single, 
> all-encom-passing life force of the cosmos, teotl vivifies the cosmos 
> and all its contents. Everything that happens does so through teotl’s 
> perpetual energy-in-motion. Teotl is the continuing “life-flow of 
> creation”:3“a vast ocean of impersonal cre-ative energy.”4
> 
> --p. 21 Aztec Philosophy
> 
> [...]
> 
> https://iep.utm.edu/aztec/#H2
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teotl
> 
> 
> 
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