The Conscience of Ancient Egyptians

The earliest records we have of any kind of moral philosophy date from between the 28th and the 25th Century BCE. The Maxims of Ptahhotep, compiled by the Grand Vizier under the Pharoah Isesi of the Fifth Dynasty in the 25th Century BCE, have been described as the "earliest formulation of right conduct to be found in any literature."

James H. Breasted in his 1934 book The Dawn of Conscience describes how in the Maxims of Ptahhotep the word for "heart" is used in ways that resemble our understanding of "conscience." The heart that hearkens to good advice is understood to be like a mentor or "wise guide."

Ptahhotep's idea of the heart as a wise guide influenced Egyptian thought for centuries. Breasted quotes a fifteenth century BCE court herald describing how his heart guided him in his service for the conqueror Thutmose III:

It was my heart which caused that I should do them, by its guidance of my affairs. It was . . . as an excellent witness. I did not disregard its speech, I feared to transgress its guidance. I prospered thereby greatly, I was successful by reason of that which it caused me to do, I was distinguished by its guidance.

‘Lo, . . .’ said the people, ‘it is an oracle of God in every body. Prosperous is he whom it has guided to the good way of achievement.’

Lo, thus I was.

Records show that the ancient Egyptians had great concern for impartially administered justice and for generosity toward the hungry and thirsty, widows, orphans, the naked and the poor. They set a limit, however, to the weight that should be given to the perceptions of strangers. Vizier Kheti of the Pyramid Age was said to have "discriminated against some of the people of his own kin [in favour of] strangers, for fear lest it should be said of him that he [favoured] his [kin dishon]estly." Later generations denounced excessive concern for impartiality as "more than justice" and exhorted later Viziers not to follow his example.

The perceptions that most concerned ordinary people of the Osirian faith in ancient Egypt were those of the forty-two lesser gods that sit in the court of the "Great God" on the day of judgment. The Egyptian Book of the Dead is filled with magic charms and incantations giving the dead power over the gods to prevent them from entering a complaint against them about their sins. The dead never confess their sins. Instead, the goal seems to be to be able to stand before the "Great God" and declare "I am one of pure mouth and pure hands, to whom was said 'Welcome, welcome' by those (the gods) who saw him." Those concerned that their own conscience would betray them as their heart was being weighed on the balances could purchase an amulet of a sacred beetle inscribed with the words, "O my heart, rise not up against me as a witness" to be placed over their heart in the grave. They could also add a chapter on "Preventing that the Heart of a Man Oppose Him in the Nether World" to their scroll of the Book of the Dead.

Those who worshipped the Sun–god, Aton, had a more conscientious religion. About Aton, Pharoah Akhenaton has been interpreted as saying that when the sun set and men slept, "Yet art thou still in my heart." Those of the Solar faith worshipped a god devoted to truth. They turned away from the magic of the Osirian faith and found relief from the guilt of sin by humble confession and repentance. For them, the goal seems to have been a quiet, inner communion with god that provided direction for their life.