Rationality and Ethics in Zara Yacob's "Hatata"

Abstract

Zara Yacob is a prominent Ethiopian philosopher of the 17th century who transcended the cultural forces of the time for arguing for the rationality of the human heart. Through the rationality of the heart Zara Yacob investigated truth includes on the methods of knowing God, discovery of truth, the obligation of human being and the nature of human. Zara Yacob's “Hatata " emerged as a critique of conventional beliefs on religion and the nature of human reason. Such a position argued for the unique nature of reason residing in the human heart and the intrinsic relation between human knowledge and everyday moral problems. The method involved in this thesis to study Zara Yacob’s rationality and Ethics in the “Hatata” is philosophical method which depends on the analysis of arguments with conceptual clarity, logical analysis and validity. The study involved the usage of rational techniques of analysis grounded on the technique and principles of logic. In Zara Yacob's philosophical approach, ‘the light of reason’, ‘the goodness of created nature’ and ‘God given intelligent’ are the cornerstones for investigating the relation between rationality and ethics. The basis of his famous ethical principle is the ‘principle of harmony’ in which truth revealed in the light of reason in the heart which is complementary to the laws of nature. I argued that Zara Yacob treatise revealed how Africans are critically engaged with most significant philosophical questions. Moreover, he is rationalist philosopher who placed emphasis on reason or intellect, by contrast with the senses, for acquiring significant truth.