English translation of the 'Maxims of Good Discourse', an ancient Egyptian text written over 4000 years ago by a wise vizier called Ptahhotep. It is in the format of a deliberate instruction given by a father to his (spiritual) son, enabling the latter, by way of right speech, to live the good life, the outcome of not interrupting the moment of the heart, offending one's vital energy (Ka). In 'The Egyptian Gentleman' (2017), a commentary on this extraordinary text is available.
2016 Reprint of 1909 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Originally published as "The Instruction of Ptah-Hotep" and also as "The Maxims of Ptahhotep," the work is believed by some scholars to be the oldest book in the world. Authorship is attributed to Ptahhotep, a vizier under King Isesi of the Egyptian Fifth Dynasty (ca. 2414-2375 BC). It is a collection of maxims and advice in the sebayt ("teaching") genre on human relations and are provided as instruction for his son. The work survives today in papyrus copies, including the Prisse Papyrus which dates from the Middle Kingdom and is on display at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. There are considerable differences between the Prisse Papyrus version and the two texts at the British Museum. The 1906 translation by Battiscombe Gunn, published as part of the "Wisdom of the East" series and which is reprinted here, was made directly from the Prisse Papyrus, in Paris, rather than from copies. Some lessons include: Learning by listening to everybody and knowing that human knowledge is never perfect are a leitmotif. Avoiding open conflict wherever possible should not be considered weakness. Justice should be pursued and in the end it will be a god's command that prevails. Greed is the base of all evil and should be guarded against, while generosity towards family and friends is praiseworthy."
This book proposes a taxonomy of jurisprudence and legal practice, based on the discourse theory of Jacques Lacan. In the anglophone academy, the positivist jurisprudence of H.L.A. Hart provides the most influential account of law. But just as positivism ignores the practice of law by lawyers, even within the academy, the majority of professors are also not pursuing Hart's positivist project. Rather, they are engaged in policy-oriented scholarship - that tries to explain law in terms of society's collective goals - or in doctrinal legal scholarship - that does not try to describe what law is, or to supply justifications for it - but which examines the 'internal' logic of law. Lacan's discourse theory has the power to differentiate the various roles of the practicing lawyer and the legal scholar. It is also able to explain the striking lack of communication between diverse schools of legal scholarship and between legal academia and the legal profession. Although extremely influential in Europe and South America, Lacanian theory remains largely unexplored (in the English-speaking world) outside of the field of comparative literature. In taking up the jurisprudential ramifications of Lacan's work, The Four Lacanian Discourses thus constitutes an original contribution to current theoretical and practical understandings of law.
Waymond Rodgers, PhD, CPA, has worked over fifteen years studying how to combine ethical considerations with a decision-making model of perception, information, and judgment that will foster better decision-making processes, resulting in an overall improvement of daily life. He has presented seminars on ethics at numerous international conferences and also provided ethics presentations to corporations, societies, universities, and other organizations such as Opus Dei. The need for ethics in society is such an important factor because many commonly held ethical values are incorporated into laws. Yet, due to the judgmental nature of certain values, many ethical values of a society cannot be incorporated into law. Ethical process thinking involves discerning right from wrong and acting in alignment with such judgments, enabling us to complement several ethical approaches of preferences, rules, and principles with unique decision-making pathways leading to an ethical decision. Ethical decisions can be difficult to make due to a misunderstanding of the decision-making process, incomplete information, changing environments, time pressures, and a lack of expertise. Ethical Beginnings: Preferences, Rules, and Principles influencing decision making explains the major barriers to ethical decision-making, why structuring a problem is necessary, and when to use information for decision-making purposes.
Winner of the 2021 Sheikh Zayed Book Award (category: Arab Culture in Other Languages) Browse a preview of Arabic Oration: Art and Fuction. In Arabic Oration: Art and Function, a narrative richly infused with illustrative texts and original translations, Tahera Qutbuddin presents a comprehensive theory of this preeminent genre in its foundational oral period, 7th-8th centuries AD. With speeches and sermons attributed to the Prophet Muḥammad, ʿAlī, other political and military leaders, and a number of prominent women, she assesses types of orations and themes, preservation and provenance, structure and style, orator-audience authority dynamics, and, with the shift from an oral to a highly literate culture, oration’s influence on the medieval chancery epistle. Probing the genre’s echoes in the contemporary Muslim world, she offers sensitive tools with which to decode speeches by mosque-imams and political leaders today.
The wish to affiliate with a specific cultural, social, or ethnical group is as important today as it was in past societies, such as that of the ancient Egyptians. The same significance applies to the self-presentation of an individual within such a group. Although it is inevitable that we perceive ancient cultures through the lens of our time, place, and value systems, we can certainly try to look beyond these limitations. Questions of how the ancient Egyptians saw themselves and how individuals tried to establish and thus present themselves in society are central pieces of the puzzle of how we interpret this ancient culture. This volume focuses on the topic of identity and self-presentation, tackling the subject from many different angles: the ways in which social and personal identities are constructed and maintained; the manipulations of culture by individuals to reflect real or aspirational identities; and the methods modern scholars use to attempt to say something about ancient persons. Building on the work of Ronald J. Leprohon, to whom this volume is dedicated, contributions in this volume present an overview of our current state of understanding of patterns of identity and self-presentation in ancient Egypt. The contributions approach various aspects of identity and self-presentation through studies of gender, literature, material culture, mythology, names, and officialdom.
