On the Major Schools of Philosophy

Report by the Court Philosopher Sephoris Mered

Philosophy is not a new concept here in Egypt or anywhere else in the known civilized world. The first philosophers wrote down their ideas and gained their first followers thousands of years ago. Our kind is as old as civilization itself, if not even older, as one can be a philosopher even with no means to write down his thoughts. Early agricultural communities probably had philosophers, and even the migrating hunter-gatherer tribes before them might have had some too. So this field is far from a novelty. However, what has changed in recent decades is the fact that it has grown immensely and gained thousands, if not millions already, new followers, adhering to one school or another. The number of schools has also increased, and they are all competing with each other, rather than one being the dominant thought in the world or even a single kingdom.

This is indeed an interesting phenomenon, and I would be hard-pressed to properly explain why it happened. However, there are some factors which most certainly contributed to it to some extent. Literacy is increasing all over the known world, which allows people to read the works of previous and current philosophers and so join that school of thought, or even create their own. Urbanization is also rapidly growing, which means people are as close to each other as they ever were, and they can share their ideas with more like-minded people. Increased political and economic integration between the countries also gives one even more reach and allows philosophies to spread outside their home and become international. There is also the fact that wealth is increasing and, on average, a citizen has a much higher standard of living than an equivalent one had even a century ago. People do not need to worry about food, shelter, and other basic necessities most of the time, mortality from the various diseases is reduced due to medical advancements, and even warfare is not as feared anymore, as everyone is now protected by a massive professional army, a dozen fortresses, and a bunch of international treaties. Thus, the people can now focus more on the mind, and on deeper subjects rather than just the matter of surviving.

Of course, this does not apply to everyone. The remaining slaves, in countries where slavery is still legal, still suffer as they always did, while the rural peasants are isolated from the international intellectual community and so have little interest in philosophy. Those who adhere to, or have even heard of these philosophical schools, mostly reside in the cities, and are at least in the middle class in terms of income and wealth. Still, this is the fastest growing class and so is not to be underestimated. On the other hand, most people probably adhere to one of the schools in any event, even if they haven’t heard of them, since these aren’t some mystical institutions providing some sacred undiscovered knowledge. They are mostly just communities founded by regular people who adhere to a certain way of life. Other philosophers may not be as humble, but I will nonetheless admit that there is nothing too special about being a philosopher, anyone can be one if there is enough will. Indeed, I’ve seen many kinds of philosophers, including priests, nobles, merchants, soldiers, landowners, peasants, homeless urban folk, men and women, fifteen-year-olds and seventy-five-year-olds, Egyptians and Libyans, and others.

Being a philosopher myself, and an adherent of one of the major schools, I may have some bias against the others, I admit. But I bear no ill will towards most of them, and I believe they have some truth and useful ideas as well. I will do my best to present them in a neutral light here, but also if needed expose them for their logical flaws or commend them for their consistency and other positive aspects. I will also only discuss the major schools, as while there are dozens of other ones too, they are either too small to be worthy of consideration or very similar to the major ones, often being their close branches or splinters resulting from disagreements between some leading philosophers.

Thotherites

The Thotherites are one of our own homegrown philosophy schools. I should preface by saying that while some simply call them followers of Thoth, this may be a bit misleading. All Thotherites are certainly followers of Thoth, but that’s not the case the other way around. Some followers of Thoth have nothing to do with this philosophy and only worship the god due to their geographical location or some other factor. Thoth is the patron god of Khemenu, and so is worshipped by most there, but most don’t necessarily adhere to the philosophy and would probably worship another god if they were born in some other place. The Thotherites are thus a more specific portion of Thoth’s followers, and many of them live outside of Khemenu and sometimes even outside the Commonwealth.

So what do they actually believe in? Well, it is pretty simple – for this school the single most important aspect of life is gaining as much knowledge as possible. Knowledge is the ultimate god to the followers of this school, and since Thoth is the god of knowledge, so does this school worship Thoth the most. And what do these people want to know? Everything. Whatever they can. Of course, one person simply cannot know everything, we are not gods, but the Thotherites will surely try to reach such a status, as the more one knows, the more they are respected in this community. Usually though, they specialize in some sphere, be it the knowledge of biology, history, mathematics, astrology, economics, or anything else, and then share their discoveries with their colleagues during their meetings. Gaining this knowledge is done in variety of ways, including travelling around the world and seeing something for yourself, reading scientific papyri, experimenting, and, of course, discussing with fellow Thotherites.

Knowledge isn’t only to be hoarded by them, and Thotherites usually actually do something with it. Some spread it to others, by becoming travelling philosophers or establishing schools and teaching children and sometimes even adults, others become scientists and inventors and try to create some new technologies to use the universe to people’s benefit even more. The results vary and there are certainly many failed inventions, but the Thotherites always encourage trying and failing rather than not trying at all. Some also become scribes and properly write down and categorize all these discoveries so that others could read it for themselves. These works are then collected in the Thotherites’ private libraries, only accessible to members of the community, or sold to public libraries in the Commonwealth and abroad. The largest private library in the world, as far as I know, is currently located in their center in Khemenu, and I was told it contains over fifty thousand papyrus scrolls, and the collection is constantly expanding.

The founding of this school is also quite interesting. The members claim to be the successors to the initial keepers of the Book of Thoth, from all the way back when Thoth himself wrote the book and left it to us humans, and so the school could be considered to be thousands of years old. The priests in Khemenu have always been somewhat more intellectually inclined and even now many priests in the city belong to this school, some being among the leading members, and so the connection may not be totally unfounded. Still, this is likely just an attempt at gaining more legitimacy, as the original priests and their ideas would have had little to do with the current iteration of the Thotherite organization. The Book of Thoth itself also causes possibly the biggest rift in the organization, and has been doing so for a long time. Some, mostly the priests, want the Book of Thoth to only be accessible to the highest ranking members of the community, while others, known as the reformers, want the Book to be accessible to everyone, or at least every Thotherite. There is even a fringe group known as the Post-Thotherites, who believe that the Book of Thoth is no longer necessary since we have learned everything from it already and there is nothing more that Thoth could teach. They are considered as heretics by most, even outside the philosophy school, and are not taken too seriously. There are also many forgeries of the Book of Thoth, fake copies, and other works pretending to be the words of the god Thoth floating around, though the priests continue to claim that only they have the true Book and that these supposed copies are illegitimate. But the priests aren’t trusted that much on this matter anymore either, as some believe that they also only have a forgery and that the true version has been lost centuries if not millennia ago. In any event, the Book is now more of a symbol to the organization, rather than any concrete work. To the Thotherites it is the highest ideal, and everyone strives to read or even write something as close as possible to this godly, and so the quest for knowledge never ends for the followers of the school. It is thus probably for the better that the Book remains unseen by the people, and continues staying as an unreachable ideal, rather than the alternative of the priests admitting that they lost or never even had the Book in the first place, or the even worse option of the Book being opened and everyone possibly realizing that it is not as impressive as one might have expected.

As for the school’s most recent incarnation, it actually has to do with the Great Powers’ War. During the war, about ten years ago now, the city of Khemenu suffered a devastating insurrection, funded by Shilhak-Inshushinak, of course, as he wanted to probe us and test our weaknesses. The city at that point was still only of medium size and the insurrection saw thousands of deaths and emigrants, which left it rather depopulated. So, in order to restore the population, the mayor and the priests collaborated to promote immigration, specifically targeting scribes, scientists, and other such logically minded people, wanting the city to have an intelligent and rich population and so remain relevant even when compared to the capital. This paid off, and thousands of similarly minded people from all around the Commonwealth converged on Khemenu. Everyone brought their own knowledge and ideas and shared them with the others, which made for a very conducive environment for research and the pursuit of further knowledge. Many influential works were written by the Thotherites during this period relating to their philosophy, which were added with the works written by the locals before them. Before long, this school of philosophy was systematized and officially established, quickly spreading by way of merchants, and travelling scientists and philosophers, who knew that they needed contacts everywhere to gain as many perspectives as possible and be able to properly understand the universe.

Currently, the adherents to the philosophy are mostly educated urban inhabitants. Scribes, merchants, independent businessmen, medics – they make up the core of the group. Priests, other than those of Thoth in Khemenu, usually remain ambivalent about the group, as while they see the need for keepers and spreaders of knowledge, they naturally don’t want people focusing on worshipping another god or concept rather than the god they serve, that is the god of the city they are in. There are also many women within the community, as the school is among the most liberal and open to everyone, and so women who want to join some community of like-minded fellows often gravitate to the Thotherites, or, as the female sub-school is often called, the Seshatites, named after the goddess Seshat, Thoth’s female equivalent and consort. Granted, even then the pool of potential candidates is rather small, but most who are in it tend to join the Thotherites or at least associate with them in some way, which makes the organization a powerful force, which is also helped by the fact that most members are moderately, if not very, wealthy and contribute to funding the libraries and other locations belonging to the school.

Thotherites are now active all across the Commonwealth and abroad, and they have some regional branches, which better reflect the local culture and god worship. In Retjenu, they are called Melqartites, after the god Melqart, who had now been established as the god of knowledge in the region. Since Melqart is the official god of the city of Tyre, the Melqartites naturally have their center in Tyre. The Mycenaeans, interestingly enough, also have a significant presence of people adhering to this philosophy. They are called Athenaites, after the Greek goddess of knowledge Athena, and are mostly concentrated in, as one would expect, Athens, which is the main intellectual center in the Confederation. Finally, the last major branch is located in the Eastern Coalition. The followers there are called Nabuites, since Nabu is the primary god of scribes and wisdom in Mesopotamian, and now the entire EC. Their center seems to be in Borsippa, the abode of Nabu, though the city is relatively small and so one is probably more likely to find Nabuites in places like Babylon or Susa. Of course, this has some political problems, as the branches share their discoveries, which eventually spill out to the greater public and the government, meaning that secrets of one faction are often discovered sooner by the other than expected. I would guess that this Thotherite-Nabuite connection may be one reason for why we learn of Mesopotamian technologies so quickly, but so does the EC learn of ours.

Overall, I think the Thotherites are a fine school, and their goal of the pursuit and sharing of knowledge is indeed noble. And I cannot argue that they bring results, as most of our inventors and scientists are probably adherents of the school, and without them we would be very much behind in many areas. On the other hand, the school certainly also has some flaws. Some discoveries may be better left secret, and the Thotherites’ obsession with sharing knowledge may be dangerous in some cases, especially when concerning dealings with people on the other side of the Euphrates. Their obsession with various trinkets and objects of perceived significance is also hindering them somewhat, as could be the case for their lack of a common goal, with everyone busy trying to discover or invent something new themselves, only for the end result to often be the literal reinvention of the wheel. But they seem to be a positive influence, and while their methods are not for me, gods bless them still.

Djedists

The Djedists are another school originating here in Egypt, although a much more recent one. Their origins can be traced by going only a few decades back, as their main tenets all relate to going back to the old ways, and since the country started changing some decades ago, so the Djedist school emerged. The name comes from the Djed pillar, representing stability, and so they are focused on stability the most. Or so they claim, at least, as their true intentions and goals are hard to decipher as the school has some rather convoluted ideas and is composed of many seemingly different groups.

The premise of their thought is rather simple – they believe that any sort of progress, be that technological, economical, cultural, or what have you, is inherently bad and that the gods oppose it. They believe that the Egyptian civilization, and others around it, survived for millennia quite well, while having no major advancements and staying in a stagnant place, and because of that progress is to be rejected. They believe that sticking to what works is the best course of action and that changing anything would only lead to the wrath of gods and unending troubles for everyone. Already one can see some flaws in this thinking, as while progress wasn’t as rapid before as it is now, it nonetheless took place over the previous millennia as well, and so the idea that Egypt or any other realm remained unchanged for all this time is just plainly wrong. Also there is the fact that stagnant civilizations tend to be defeated by their more advanced neighbors more often than not, as we have seen precisely this in action during the Great Powers’ War and the OFK-EC War, as the old realms of Karduniash and Assyria crumbled to the numerically inferior Elam, simply due to its leader’s new methods. But I digress, I just wanted to illustrated how even the whole premise of this school is already quite flawed, and it seems to only get worse from here.

As you can see, I don’t care much for this school, but I imagine you wouldn’t either. The early Djedist works are cited as an influence for the traitor general Binebtat, the founder of the Sons of Montu, who have terrorized our country for decades before being put out of their miserable lives. Indeed, the Djedists and the Sons of Montu seemed to have a sort of symbiotic relationship, with the school influencing these terrorists, and the Sons in turn promoting this philosophy even more. Now, at first the connection may not be obvious, as the Sons of Montu claimed to have the reversal of the peace treaty with the Hittites after the Second Hittite-Egyptian War as their main goal, but Djedist ideas coincided here pretty well actually. The whole idea of a peace treaty is a relatively new concept, which entered Egypt only about two centuries ago, when Ramesses II signed a treaty with the Hittites following the First Hittite-Egyptian War. So, of course, the Djedists are fundamentally against any sort of peace treaties, instead preferring warring to the very end, until one side wins or is completely annihilated. They oppose the second treaty, and at that retroactively began opposing the first treaty, and now, of course, they also oppose the Treaty of Euphrates. So the Sons of Montu simply adopted these positions, and one could even say that during their existence they acted as the armed wing of the Djedist school, even if sometimes unknowingly.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Granted, there still are some differences between the two groups. Djedists are first and foremost still scholars, mostly priests or scribes, whereas the Sons of Montu were all ex-military, or soldiers trained by them. An average Sons of Montu member could hardly read, led alone comprehend a philosophy text, whereas an average Djedist can barely get up from his bed unassisted, and I was told that there were some serious disagreements between the two groups, even while being on the same side. Still, one would probably not be wrong in assuming that if the Sons of Montu succeeded in their coup, they would have placed some prominent Djedists in government positions, as they would still need the support of the priestly and scribal classes to have a functioning state. Yet that did not happen, and the Sons of Montu are now nothing more than some scattered ashes and bones decaying in the desert.

Without their armed protectors, the Djedists were left in quite a precarious position. They immediately started dissociating from the Sons of Montu and claimed that they had never allied with them, if only to not have the same fate befall them. These days they are once again becoming cockier and praise the Sons of Montu more openly, though never going as far as physical violence, now knowing the consequences of such actions. Their numbers dropped during the war, but have now recovered somewhat, and it seems that this school isn’t going anywhere. I suppose that is an inevitability, as there will always exist some reactionaries, wanting to go back to the old ways, and getting rid of them completely is hardly possible. Still, keeping an eye on their antics might be wise, who knows what they might be preparing for now.

As I mentioned, the Djedists are composed of a few sub-schools, but they all share some common ideas. All of them relating to going back to the old ways, or, rather, the perceived old ways, as sometimes even the reality of history is not enough for the Djedists and they want to make society even more rigid than it previously was. They oppose basically everything that is happening right now and most laws that are in place today. They oppose women serving in the army or even working, and want them to remain at home solely to give birth to children and take care of them. They oppose the professional army and the hiring of mercenaries and want something along the lines of mass conscription of males during war time. As I mentioned, they also want wars to only end in a complete victory for one side, and no compromises to be made. They oppose alliances. They oppose trade. They oppose specialization in production. They oppose money. They oppose worker’s rights and want to reinstate slavery. They oppose the creation of the Commonwealth and want Kush and Retjenu to go back to being regions exploited by Egypt, with no agency for themselves. They oppose any sort of education except for the very few. They oppose large cities and their culture. In essence, a perfect society for them would be a barbarian one, ironically enough, since they hate barbarians as much as anyone and probably even more. Even Djoser, of two millennia ago, would probably be appalled by such ideas and would consider this group to be made up of lunatics, in my opinion. Djedists don’t even seem to care about Egypt winning in any sphere, they only want their enemies to lose, and their enemies include almost everyone. Of course, I am exaggerating somewhat, I mostly heard accounts of this group from other philosophers and interacted with the Djedists themselves only a few times, so I am biased in a way. Not all Djedists are so extreme, and I imagine as time goes on their positions might moderate.

The major split in the school seems to be the foreign policy approach. Some want Egypt to go out and conquer everything around it, while others want it to become isolationist and interact little with the outside world. Of course, peaceful and diplomatic positions aren’t options for the Djedists, it’s either just defense from the outside world or a full attack on it, as their whole worldview seems predicated on everyone constantly trying to destroy them. The old Djedist guard seems to prefer the isolationist approach, but the new followers, as well as those who had connections with the Sons of Montu, prefer conquest, and it seems that the school as a whole is shifting towards that position. Or, seeming how everyone there is so aggressive, it might just split in two and they might begin fighting each other. That would not surprise me at all.

Other than this split, the school is mostly homogenous. It consists almost exclusively of male priests and some scribes, continuing to write revisionist works on the history of Egypt and the world, and how the only way to please the gods and save ourselves is to drop all our advancements, as well as some disillusioned soldiers, sailors, and peasants, who join for one reason or another, but seem to have little involvement other than an occasional gathering at a bar to complain how their life was better when they could still rape women in captured cities and beat their Kushite slaves. I don’t know if they have any center, but if they do, it’s probably in some irrelevant town or village, considering their disdain for major cities. They also don’t have any branched in Kush, Retjenu, or abroad, as they believe in Egyptian supremacy and feel like they don’t need any allies, even if they did happily take delivery of Kushite and Elamite supplies during the war to undermine the government. Every country probably has a similar school, but they would all be unrelated, due to the nature of such lines of thinking. Tiglath-Pileser’s exiles and the Assyrian Liberation Army are the closest example I can think of for the Djedists, but they are long gone now, exterminated even more thoroughly than the Sons of Montu. The followers of Hecataeus in the Mycenaean Confederation also seemed to have some similar ideas to the Djedists, but, again, Hecataeus is now nothing more than a cripple, always to remain in the shadow of his wanax brother, and I don’t believe anyone will be congregating around the failed successor now. The Hittite society may be the most conducive to this philosophy currently, but the Nile would dry up before the Djedists would even consider working with the Hittites.

I think I said everything that needs to be said about this school. I will admit, there is value in stability, and sometimes old ideas can be superior to new inventions, elders can often be good teachers to the youngsters. But the way these Djedists go about it is not only unproductive, but extremely destructive. For them it’s all about the race to the bottom, and I doubt any god would be satisfied by that. If the Djedists truly cared about stability, they would shut up and let you do your work, instead of trying to undermine every single thing that you or anyone in your government does. Ironically enough, the Djedists are a much bigger threat to the stability of this country than any new invention or law could ever be.

Hammurabites

The Hammurabite philosophy may at first seem very similar to the Djedist one, but in reality the two are as different as they come. While the Thotherites want to push humanity forward, and the Djedists backward, the Hammurabites simply say – why not leave that up to the rulers? And that’s what the essence of the Hammurabite school is, following the government’s laws and not causing any unnecessary trouble. Of course, it is a bit more complicated than that, otherwise it would be just common sense and not a distinct philosophical school, so I will explain what the Hammurabite thought is in detail.

As one would assume, the school takes its name from the Babylonian king Hammurabi, the most well-known ruler of the Old Babylonian Empire, reigning around seven centuries ago. While some may focus on his military conquests, his more important accomplishment was the creation of the Code of Hammurabi, one of the first extensive law codes, and the first one to be applied on such a large scale and endure. Others had written law codes before him in the region, but those were either individual city states, and so their law codes stopped being relevant once they were conquered, or short-lived empires, such as the Third Dynasty of Ur, which collapsed before the codes could even really take effect. Hammurabi was influenced by them to some extent, but also added his own ideas, and so the most comprehensive code was compiled and spread all over his realm. This set of laws remained in place not only during the existence of the Old Babylonian Empire, about two hundred more years after Hammurabi, but also persisted even after its collapse. Its slightly altered version is now in effect in Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonia, and both Ninsina’s Assyrian and Shilhak’s Elamite codes were highly influenced by it. Thus Hammurabi’s code could be said to be the foundation of Mesopotamian and Elamite law, and so the king is still a highly studied and revered figure.

One could then say that the Hammurabite school existed ever since the writing of the code, and that would be partially correct, but, as with most schools, the current iteration has its origins much closer to today. Some say that it emerged during the Kassite reign over Babylonia, possibly around three or two centuries ago, once the Kassites had conformably settled in already, others claim that it emerged during the Assyrian-Kassite War a few decades ago, and some even say that it was purposefully and secretly started by Shilhak-Inshushinak himself during his invasion of Mesopotamia so that the new subjects would be more willing to follow him. There may be truth in all these theories, as the region was always highly unstable and in the hands of different dynasties and rulers, so the school might have reinvented itself many times over the last few centuries. In any event, it is now a rather prominent philosophy not only in Babylonia, but in the entire Eastern Coalition. Its center seems to be in the city of Babylon, but the followers are well spread throughout the lands of the whole faction, and so the importance of a central location is not that high as for, say, the Thotherites.

The Hammurabite thought may appear to be just a slave mentality, but that’s not exactly the case, as it has a few important notions which differentiate it from simple subservience. The first is adherence to the laws, rather than just to any authority. That means that the Hammurabites would follow their leader if one ruled by the law code, but if one was to just issue orders on a whim, with no written law to back it up, the Hammurabites would abandon them. The Hammurabites would always resist and would never truly serve barbarians, as they are an inherently lawless people, and so are always to be resisted according to this philosophy. The same goes for any foreigner ruler who comes in but doesn’t follow the set laws. In Karduniash, during the Great Powers’ War, most people did not mind the Elamite advance too much, but dreaded and fought the Assyrians the best they could. One might find this strange, but for the Hammurabites this made perfect sense. Shilhak was a man of the laws, who wrote laws for his own kingdom and understood the ones in place in Babylonia, and so the Babylonians could trust him and were ready to exchange their current ruler for the Elamite invader. Meanwhile Tiglath ruled however he wanted, with a might makes right mentality, and so the Babylonians often considered him as a barbarian or even worse, something akin to a wild beast, which made them resist him much more.

And just like how the Hammurabites advocate resisting an illegitimate and lawless regime, so they also, quite consistently, advocate overthrowing their own regime if it stops following the laws or does something similarly drastic. However, they are nowhere as drastic as the Djedists, and don’t mind change, as long as it doesn’t threaten the country and the people within. For example, the Hammurabites would be fine with a small increase in taxes or some change in the army structure, but if the ruler suddenly decided to confiscate half of everyone’s income or conscript every able person into the army, then revolt would be justified. The rulers have to follow the laws as well and have to do everything by the book, otherwise they would be no better than barbarians and so would have to be replaced by a more competent and just ruler. The laws themselves also have to make sense and be made in service of the people and the country and not just the reigning monarch. So the Hammurabites do hold their rulers and governments accountable, but as long as nothing too drastic is changed, they would most likely remain satisfied.

This is also not to say that we could just invade Mesopotamia and the Hammurabites would be happy with an Egyptian ruler. For them a ruler being a Mesopotamian or at least an Elamite – that is, from a civilization which has for many centuries now been ruled according to some law code – is still an important factor, and they would still fight very much to defend their lands. Only if the situation got really dire, and the ruler became truly insane, would they consider helping the Egyptian invaders, though even then they would prefer that a Mesopotamian would be placed on the throne after the conflict was over. And same would go for any of their branches in other countries, which makes sense, since it is only natural that people have a preference for rulers from their own group rather than being ruled by a foreigner who might not understand their culture.

So this school of thought is rather complicated, as while its adherents understand that they must put their trust into the ruler, who knows better than them in most cases and so can lead the country and its people to prosperity, they also have a set of specific criteria which must be fulfilled by the ruler. These specifics vary from member to member, as some are more lenient and other want to hold their rulers accountable for every little mistake, and over the years philosophers of this school have had many debates discussing what the ruler should be permitted to do and what warrants criticism or even a revolt. Some argue that if a ruler pushes reforms too fast, the country is being endangered, while followers on the other aisle of this issue say that if a ruler is not modernizing the country enough then that warrants intervention, and same goes for many other issues. Thus the school often has no concrete answers and judges actions on a case by case basis, which allows it to reach many potential followers and grow in numbers, but they all agree on the central tenet of the school – that one must remain loyal to the ruler and the government by default, unless there is a very good reason not to do that, usually relating to the lack of laws or the passing of unjust ones.

And as one would expect, the Hammurabites value hierarchies very much. For them, everyone has a place in the universe and should not try to change it, unless, again, there is a very good reason to do that. They support hierarchies in governments, in companies, in armies, often in families too. Some support other, less official hierarchies, such as ones between ethnicities, religions, different countries, and the like, and this is often discussed in their circles as well. In pure Hammurabite thought everyone and everything has its place in the universe, as allocated by the gods, and this placement should not be questioned in most cases, though if there is an inefficiency at the moment, it should still be fixed, as it is considered to be helping the gods restore order rather than going against their will. Of course, there is the matter of slaves, and the Hammurabites did indeed use to support slavery very much, now it is more of a contested issue, as some in the school claim that gods never intended for there to be slaves and so they must be freed to correct this inefficiency. Or, rather, the rulers should pass some laws to reduce or abolish slavery.

As for the group’s composition, it is rather diverse, due to the philosophy being pretty moderate and open to most people. There are men and women, old and young, rural peasants and urban merchants alike, though naturally the wealthy and powerful gravitate towards this philosophy more, since they are content in their position more often than the lower-class people. The Hammurabites also have some branches abroad, though these are unofficial branches and they rarely interact, unlike the Thotherites and their brother schools. Here in the Commonwealth we have the Maatists, a subset of the followers of our goddess of order and justice Maat, which is relatively new as it was formed partially as a reaction to the Djedist movement, and it is focused mostly on defending our institutions against radicals. Hatti also actually has an unofficial branch, that being the Pallannaites, named after the Pallanna Valley, where the resistance to dethrone the usurper Hakkarpili and restore Muwatalli first emerged, and where the recent Hittite Civil War began. They are a more militant organization, more focused on actual plans on what to do if a usurper needs to be overthrown again rather than philosophizing, which is understandable given what took place in the country just a few years ago. Though now that the situation has stabilized, they are also adopting a more scholarly approach and discussing when a ruler needs to be replaced.

Overall, I think this is a fine philosophy to adhere to. I’d even say we would benefit if more people followed it, though it is not for everyone. It is certainly not a very ambitious one, and is more similar to just accepting things as they are and going with the flow rather than actively seeking anything. Only in the worst case scenario do the followers advocate for taking action, and by then it may actually be too late in some cases. Still, trust in the rulers and the government is important for any country’s wellbeing, and while, again, this school of thought is not for me, I can certainly see its use.