Philosophy and Money in Ancient Egypt

The group of texts which acted functionally as philosophy in ancient Egypt addressed the ethical and moral issues associated with wealth rather than money. These wisdom texts supported maat, an ideal of justice that re-enforced the existing power structure. This approach was remarkably consistent for over 3000 years, attributing the distribution of wealth to the gods’ wishes. This study begins with a brief exploration of Egyptian ideas and processes that functioned as philosophy and money within the society and continues with a chronological discussion of the place of wealth in the Egyptian moral universe. It concludes with some remarks on continuity and change over the roughly 3000 years of Egyptian documentation for the Egyptian ethical and moral view of wealth.