What is it about?
A 4,000-year old popular Egyptian text is shown to contain all the values and norms of the ethics code of the International Federation of Journalists. It is also compatible with the current ideologies of political liberalism and reformist socialism. Communications ethics principles may in fact be more trans-cultural than commonly assumed.
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Why is it important?
Communication ethics hardly ever go beyond ancient Greek ethics and the Ten Commandments. But there are even older roots of (not only) Western civilization, and they are easily translatable to current regulatory principles that inform not only communications ethics codes and discourses, but also media law and policy. The Teachings of Ptahhotep can and should be taken into account in numerous discourses that currently overlook and ignore them.
Perspectives
Ancient Egyptian secular culture has had very little backing in history. Neither Judaism, nor Christianity, nor Islam have had particularly nice things to say about ancient Egyptian wisdom or values. The ancient Greeks and Romans also seem to have distorted and downplayed these elements in particular. This has led to a kind of blindness regarding values that current societies share with ancient Egypt. It took me decades to overcome this partial blindness and see how much connects us with the ancient Egyptians. The insights gathered may prove useful for current attempts to translate and globalize communication ethics, for example in the UN-affiliated Internet Governance Forum.
Anthony Löwstedt
Webster Vienna Private University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Do we still adhere to the norms of ancient Egypt? A comparison of Ptahhotep’s communication ethics with current regulatory principles, International Communication Gazette, October 2018, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1748048518802241.
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