Aztec Philosophy

a new book called Aztec Philosophy has made some to-do in the land of philosophy. As an assessment of the thought and metaphysics of a lost civilization there is much to commend the attempt. And yet does not western philosophy always wish to capture this thought and render it inert? Yes it does. The evidence for this biopsy is in the index: there is no mention of mushrooms, psilocybe or Teonanácatl: “God Mushroom.” The Christians who destroyed the Aztec civilization wished also to destroy this “mushroom god” and they did so by violently suppressing its use and killing its priests. Even to this day the existence of such psychoactive drugs in the historical record and in general-use threatens both Philosophy and Christianity by revealing them to be mere pastiche: giant authority structures consisting mostly of magical thinking. So these drugs and their history must be ignored at all costs. The book Aztec Philosophy carries on this ignorance.