An Interesting and informative account of the philosophy of the Aztecs (Nahuas). I particularly appreciated the way historical, linguistic and cultural examples were skillfully interwoven with the philosophical ideas, so that readers got a comprehensives introduction to the cultural and intellectual world of the Aztecs.

It was also good to see referencing to modern philosophical concepts and comparisons with Aristotle, Stoicism and Eastern ideas. However, one surprising omission was the absence of comparisons with Christianity. The book talked about an Aztec worldview which expected people to slip up. That sounded vaguely like the Christian idea of original sin. It would have been interesting to know whether Aztec and Christian ideas overlapped on points like that.

Another welcome feature of the book is that it didn’t just describe Aztec ideas, it also tried to explore their implications. So, for example, the Aztec belief in a universal stuff which everything is made from (teotl) was explained as a version of Pantheism.

Sometimes the book had so much to say that I think it moved a little too fast. For example, it opened by informing readers that the Aztecs did not seek happiness, they pursued neltiliztli instead, or a ‘rootedness.’ Later, readers were informed that the Aztecs discussed happiness and had no less than 3 different words to analyse its concepts (paqui, ahuiya and huellamati). But why were they discussing concepts of happiness if Aztec philosophy was about rootedness instead of happiness? I would have appreciated a little more clarification on that issue.

In places I think that the book could have challenged Aztec ideas a little more. For example, it was good that it included an appendix dealing with the issue of blood sacrifice but, to some extent, it explained it away as arising due to a factually wrong cosmology.

However, wasn’t there also an underlying ‘collectivist’ thinking in Aztec culture, which the author earlier contrasted in the book with Western Individualism. And we know that collectivist regimes can under-value the well-being of individuals compared to society. So, doesn’t that raise the question of whether, and to what extent, blood sacrifice was a logical, albeit extreme, development of core ideas embedded within the Aztec culture and philosophy? It would have been helpful to press questions like that a little harder.

What I didn’t appreciate in the book were some of the occasional opinions. For example, in chapter 7 there were references to “girly things” like yoga and to masculine things like “chugging beer.” Are opinions promoting that kind of gendered stereotyping really appropriate in a modern book?

And in chapter 2 there were swipes at the ‘still oppressively sexist’ Catholic Church. Why on earth is a book on Aztec philosophy detouring into negative opinions about a contemporary world religion, especially as those kinds of opinions should be completely irrelevant to Aztec philosophy?

Overall, this was a broad and thoughtful introduction to a culture which deserves to be much better known. It will be relevant to anyone with an interest in philosophy, history or the culture of the Aztec region. However, some of the opinions in the text raise questions which may affect the suitability of this book for some readers and for use in some educational contexts. That means that it is difficult to grade it more than 2 stars

(These are honest comments on a free ARC digital version of the text. Readers should note that published versions of texts sometimes differ from earlier review versions, and so elements of this review may end up being non-applicable to the eventual published text).