The Teaching of Ptahhatp, composed two millennia before the birth of Plato, is the oldest surviving statement of philosophy in the ancient world and the earliest witness to the power of the written word. It ought to begin the list of the world’s philosophy classics, yet it has been largely forgotten since it was rediscovered in the nineteenth century. Bill Manley’s new translation corrects this oversight, rendering into approachable modern English Ptahhatp’s profound yet practical account of ‘the meaning of life’, providing a new perspective on the Pyramid Age and overturning traditional prejudices about the origins of writing and philosophy.

A testament to a common thread connecting humanity across time, Ptahhatp grapples with the pitfalls of greed, ambition, celebrity, success, confrontation, friendship, sex and even the office environment, and his teachings remain remarkably relevant in the modern day.