Reputation, Status, Ma’at, and Free Will: Critical Analysis

“A man is stable if he applies the Rule correctly, (and) follows his path according to the right way. (Thus) he will count (without avidity) his goods, (whereas) the one with the greedy heart will have no tomb.” – Ptah Hotep.

Do our lives belong to us? Is our character what we make it? Are our choices completely our own, made of our own accord without limit? Do we have control over who we are? Philosophers have been grappling with these questions for centuries. They ponder over how the implication of religion and culture affect our decisions and the intention we make them with. Cultures and societies, for ages, have given insight to these questions; and ancient Egypt is not exempt from this. Through the importance of reputation, the influence of social status and moral luck, and the assertion of Ma’atian principles, the precepts of Ptah-Hotep contend ancient Egypt’s ideas of free will, goodness, and how it is inexplicably linked to the divine and the afterlife.

The Precepts of Ptah-Hotep was an ancient Egyptian literary piece alleged to have been written by the Vizier Ptah-Hotep, delineating his sagacity and experience. Ptah-Hotep, named after the Egyptian god of creation, Ptah, was the vizier to King Djedkare Isesi of the Fifth Dynasty in 2375-2350 BC. (Mark, Old Kingdom). Ptah-Hotep wrote the precepts to give the youth and upcoming generation wisdom and advice to teach them how to live well and good.

Reputation was very important to people in ancient Egypt. If you had a better reputation, ancient Egyptians believed that the gods would regard you better. (Silva). Ptah-Hotep stresses the importance of reputation immensely in his precepts. Almost everything that he advises the youth to do is done with the intent to protect and enhance one’s reputation, whether directly or indirectly. In precept #2, Ptah-Hotep says:

“If you find a disputant while he is hot, and if he is superior to you in ability, lower the hands, bend the back, do not get into a passion with him. As he will not let you destroy his words, it is utterly wrong to interrupt him; that proclaims that you are incapable of keeping yourself calm when you are contradicted. If then you have to do with a disputant while he is hot, imitate one who does not stir. You have the advantage over him if you keep silence when he is uttering evil words. ‘The better of the two is he who is impassive,’ say the bystanders, and you are right in the opinion of the great.”

Ptah-Hotep asks the youth to be calm, and cool-headed. He tells them to not entertain arguments, especially not with someone who has authority over them. He tells them to do this so that people overhearing the dispute will take notice of their cool-headedness, and regard them with admiration and respect. Ptah-Hotep asks the youth to do away with their pride and to allow themselves to be chastised and yelled at by someone with authority over them, all in the pursuit to evade humiliation and attain a better reputation. In many other precepts, he asks the youth to do this as well. He asks them to approach all situations with caution, to think clearly and rationally, and to act circumspectly; wary, and not akin to take risks.

In precept #21, Ptah-Hotep says:

“Treat your dependents well, in so far as it belongs to you to do so; and it belongs to those whom Ptah has favored. If anyone fails in treating his dependents well it is said: ‘He is a person . . .’ As we do not know the events which may happen tomorrow, he is a wise person by whom one is well treated. When there comes the necessity of showing zeal, it will then be the dependents themselves who say: ‘Come on, come on,’ if good treatment has not quitted the place; if it has quitted it, the dependents are defaulters.”

Ptah-Hotep asks the youth to treat their “dependents” (friends and family) well to obtain better regard in their hearts and to be seen better in the eyes of the god Ptah. This is another testament to reputation; Ptah-Hotep asks the youth to treat others better to gain a better reputation.

Ancient Egypt upheld a rigid hierarchy, headed by the king and followed by his vizier, court members, priests and scribes, governors, military generals, artists and craftspeople, government supervisors, peasant farmers, and slaves. (Mark, Social Structure). The social hierarchy of ancient Egypt gave every Egyptian their very own social status, and Ptah-Hotep constantly makes references to both hierarchy and status within his precepts. Ptah-Hotep makes it clear that a person’s social status should and will affect how they go through everyday life. In many of his precepts relating to reputation, he provides insight into how a person’s social status limits their ability to defend themselves in disputes and uphold their reputation at the same time. He also addresses different people in different social statuses specifically. In precept #8, he addresses thriving farmers; and tells them to be humble and not boast, for fear of angering the god Ptah who allowed for their crops to thrive, and to obtain greater respect from Ptah. In precept #4, Ptah-Hotep speaks to leaders and tells them to always perform good deeds and take notice of good deeds so that no one can say anything bad about them.

In precept #10, Ptah-Hotep says: “If you abase yourself in obeying a superior, your conduct is entirely good before Ptah. Knowing who you ought to obey and who you ought to command, do not lift up your heart against him.”

In this, he is telling people of lower social status to perform their duties to the best of their abilities and to serve someone wealthier than them to receive approval from the god Ptah. Though they don’t have the highest social status, he presents ways for them to gain a better reputation in the eyes of the gods.

Ptah-Hotep also addresses social status in a different way. On many occasions, he warns the youth to not underestimate someone coming from a lower social ranking than them. In precept #1, Ptah-Hotep says:

“Be not arrogant because of that which you know; deal with the ignorant as with the learned; for the barriers of art are not closed, no artist being in possession of the perfection to which he should aspire. But good words are more difficult to find than the emerald, for it is by slaves that that is discovered among the rocks of pegmatite.”

Ptah-Hotep tells his readers to not become arrogant and to take advice from people coming from every walk of life. He says that no one is able to come to their full potential and that all people have the potential for greatness.

In this, whilst Ptah-Hotep does ask the youth to be accepting and to take notice of all people, he also indirectly introduces to his readers the idea of moral luck. Moral luck is a concept that describes circumstances in which a person is assigned blame or praise for actions or consequences of actions that are not completely in their control (Silva). No person is capable of choosing what family they are born into, and, through that, what social class they adopt. Ptah-Hotep asks the youth to be wary of moral luck and to take note of it. He advises them to not judge a person based on their status, but on their substance. In a way, all of his precepts pertaining to social class have some aspect of moral luck involved. Though he doesn’t address it directly, when he asks people to be aware of their social standing and to act according to that, he is asking them to be aware of their own moral luck and to act and make decisions within the confines of that.

The underlying factor that is present in all of Ptah-Hoteps precepts is the principles of Ma’at. Though ancient Egyptians did follow a polytheistic religion, their customs, practices, and ways of life were a product of the principles of Ma’at. The principles of Ma’at are comprised of seven cardinal virtues (truth, justice, rightness, harmony, balance, reciprocity, and order) and 42 admonitions. (Asante). Ma’atian principles are represented by an Egyptian goddess named Ma’at, who is usually seen with wings and a feather atop her head. Ma’at’s feather plays a role in deciding the fate of a person after their death, which was one of the reasons she was so important and well-respected. (Asante).

Precept #11 says: “Be active during the time of your existence, do no more than is commanded. Do not spoil the time of your activity; he is a blameworthy person who makes a bad use of his moments. Do not lose the daily opportunity of increasing that which your house possesses. Activity produces riches, and riches do not endure when it slackens.”

In this precept, Ptah-Hotep advises the youth to enjoy their lives while they live it, and to not overwork themselves into misery. He asks them to find a balance between work and recreation, and balance is a very important virtue of ma’at.

Precept #25 says: “If you are powerful, respect knowledge and calmness of language. Command only to direct; to be absolute is to run into evil. Let not your heart be haughty, neither let it be mean. Do not let your orders remain unsaid and cause your answers to penetrate; but speak without heat, assume a serious countenance. As for the vivacity of an ardent heart, temper it; the gentle man penetrates all obstacles. He who agitates himself all the day long has not a good moment; and he who amuses himself all the day long keeps not his fortune. Aim at fulness like pilots; once one is seated another works, and seeks to obey one’s orders.’

Ptah-Hotep tackles balance, justice, and rightness in this precept. He advises the powerful to be noble and justice. He tells them not to abuse their power just because they have it. He also advises the youth to find a balance between fun and work.

In a way, all of the precepts Ptah-Hotep made that addressed a person’s place in Egyptian society (whether it be the place of a son, a farmer, a leader, a poor person, a husband, etc) and how to thrive in that place, calls on the order aspect of Ma’at. He asks the youth to maintain the order of ancient Egypt and uphold Ma’at by taking well to the positions they exist in and following his advice.

Ptah-Hotep provided commentary on many important aspects of ancient Egyptian life like reputation, social status, the Ma’atian principles, and all three of these things impart insight into what free will meant in ancient Egypt: almost nothing. Though every person has control over their own actions, many parts of ancient Egyptian life made it almost impossible to actually act that way. In the pursuit of a well-made and respectable reputation, ancient Egyptians were made to fit into confines deemed respectable by the rest of Egyptian society, and by the gods. Moral luck and social status made it so that Egyptians had to follow the path that their social ranking laid out for them. The social hierarchy of ancient Egypt was thought to be a product of Ma’at. Egyptians weren’t able to make choices that deviated from it in fear of gaining a negligible reputation and being hated by the gods.

Ancient Egyptians believed that Ma’at enveloped all parts of natural existence. In certain ways, Ma’at held dominion over all bodies of rightness, joy, and goodness (the Egyptians called this concept the expansion of the heart). Ancient Egyptian believed in the “context of possibilities”. (Asante). They didn’t believe in original sin, they believed that there was evil and there was Ma’at, the two things that would endure until the end of time, and that one must find their own inner strength based on the divine nature they believed was in every human by doing Ma’at. To ancient Egyptians, rather than being a concept or a belief, Ma’at was a style of living. Egyptians wanted “to speak Maat, to do Maat, and to be Maat.” (Asante). They believed that if you weren’t doing Ma’at, you were doing evil; and that the only way for the world to not be overcome with evil was by constantly seeking, believing, and doing Ma’at. If one were to act in opposition to Ma’at, they would be punished harshly. Ma’at was the universal law that enabled the world to function as it was created to. (Mark, Social Structure). Doing Ma’at included upholding a good reputation and keeping order by acting the way that they were supposed to depend on whatever position they held in Egyptian society. They believed that if they did Ma’at well, they would be able to secure a position in Aaru, an Egyptian form of heaven, in the after-life. (Asante).

Ancient Egyptians lived every day of their lives controlled by Ma’at, their reputation, their social ranking, and their desired fate in the after-life. Truly, they had no real control over their actions, no actual free-will, and no control over their lives or choices, even if they believed that they did. Ptah-Hotep, the vizier to King Djedkare Isesi, may have believed a person had control over their own life, but his precepts proved the opposite. This gives lots of cognizance into life today. Do we have control over our own actions? Are we impacted by moral luck, our desire for a good reputation, and our society’s principles and traditions? What would happen if we tried to act in opposition to all of these things? Are our choices and our hope to be good people fueled by our want for a harmonious death (or life after death, if it exists)? Ptah-Hotep provided a considerable amount of insight into what it means to be a human living in a world of other humans, faced with our own mortality, limited by others and the ephemerality of our existence. Does what his precepts about ancient Egypt say about free will still hold true today?

“And they that are guided go not astray, but they that lose their bearings cannot find a straight course.” ― Ptah-Hotep