The people in ancient times the phenomenal world was teeming with life; the thunderclap, the sudden shadow, the unknown and eerie clearing in the wood, all were living things. This unabridged edition traces the fascinating history of thought from the pre-scientific, personal concept of a "humanized" world to the achievement of detached intellectual reasoning. The authors describe and analyze the spiritual life of three ancient civilizations: the Egyptians, whose thinking was profoundly influenced by the daily rebirth of the sun and the annual rebirth of the Nile; the Mesopotamians, who believed the stars, moon, and stones were all citizens of a cosmic state; and the Hebrews, who transcended prevailing mythopoeic thought with their cosmogony of the will of God. In the concluding chapter the Frankforts show that the Greeks, with their intellectual courage, were the first culture to discover a realm of speculative thought in which myth was overcome. The late Henri Frankfort , famed equally as explorer and scholar, was director of the Warburg Institute and professor of preclassical antiquity at the University of London. Frankfort was the author and coauthor of many books, including The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man , published by the University of Chicago Press. The late John A. Wilson was Andrew MacLeish Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man An Essay on Speculative Thought in the Ancient Near East By H. Frankfort, H. A. Frankfort, John A. Wilson, Thorkild Jacobsen, William A. Irwin The University of Chicago Press Copyright © 1946 The University of Chicago All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-226-26008-2 Contents INTRODUCTION By H. and H. A. FRANKFORT, I. MYTH AND REALITY, EGYPT By JOHN A. WILSON, II. THE NATURE OF THE UNIVERSE, III. THE FUNCTION OF THE STATE, IV. THE VALUES OF LIFE, MESOPOTAMIA By THORKILD JACOBSEN, V. THE COSMOS AS A STATE, VI. THE FUNCTION OF THE STATE, VII. THE GOOD LIFE, THE HEBREWS By WILLIAM A. IRWIN, VIII. GOD, IX. MAN, X. MAN IN THE WORLD, XI. NATION, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS, CONCLUSION By H. and H. A. FRANKFORT, XII. THE EMANCIPATION OF THOUGHT FROM MYTH, NOTES, INDEX, CHAPTER 1 MYTH AND REALITY IF WE look for "speculative thought" in the documents of the ancients, we shall be forced to admit that there is very little indeed in our written records which deserves the name of "thought" in the strict sense of that term. There are very few passages which show the discipline, the cogency of reasoning, which we associate with thinking. The thought of the ancient Near East appears wrapped in imagination. We consider it tainted with fantasy. But the ancients would not have admitted that anything could be abstracted from the concrete imaginative forms which they left us. We should remember that even for us speculative thought is less rigidly disciplined than any other form. Speculation—as the etymology of the word shows—is an intuitive, an almost visionary, mode of apprehension. This does not mean, of course, that it is mere irresponsible meandering of the mind, which ignores reality or seeks to escape from its problems. Speculative thought transcends experience, but only because it attempts to explain, to unify, to order experience. It achieves this end by means of hypotheses. If we use the word in its original sense, then we may say that speculative thought attempts to underpin the chaos of experience so that it may reveal the features of a structure—order, coherence, and meaning. Speculative thought is therefore distinct from mere idle speculation in that it never breaks entirely away from experience. It may be "once removed" from the problems of experience, but it is connected with them in that it tries to explain them. In our own time speculative thought finds its scope more severely limited than it has been at any other period. For we possess in science another instrument for the interpretation of experience, one that has achieved marvels and retains its full fascination. We do not allow speculative thought, under any circumstances, to encroach upon the sacred precincts of science. It must not trespass on the realm of verifiable fact; and it must never pretend to a dignity higher than that of working hypotheses, even in the fields in which it is permitted some scope. Where, then, is speculative thought allowed to range today? Its main concern is with man—his nature and his problems, his values and his destiny. For man does not quite succeed in becoming a scientific object to himself. His need of transcending chaotic experience and conflicting facts leads him to seek a metaphysical hypothesis that may clarify his urgent problems. On the subject of his "self" man will, most obstinately, speculate—even today. When we turn to the ancient Near East in search of similar efforts, two correlated facts become apparent. In the first place, we find that speculation f