.According to Aztec philosophy, “knowledge, truth, value, rightness, and beauty were defined in terms of the aim of humans maintaining their balance as well as the balance of the cosmos.[This is consistent with Maat] Every moment and aspect of human life was meant to further the realization of this aim.
Humans thus cognize [think] knowingly if and only if they cognize with well-rootedness-cum-alethia [truth]. They cognize with well-rootedness-cum-alethia if and only if their cognizing is well-rooted in teotl [the Creator]. The Nahuas [Aztecs] conceived well-rootedness-cum-alethia in terms of burgeoning. Burgeoning and rootedness are both vegetal notions deriving from the organic world of agricultural life [They logically used the metaphor of nature to understand the Creator and truth].
A plant's flowers and fruits burgeon from its seeds, soil, and roots, and in so doing embody, present, and disclose the latter's qualities. Analogously, cognizing knowingly [thinking based on truth] is a form of cognitive flourishing. It is the flower of an organic-like process consisting of teotl's sap-like burgeoning, unfolding, and blossoming within a person's heart. By doing so, teotl discloses and unconceals itself. As the generative presentation of teotl, human knowing thus represents one of the ways teotl faithfully, genuinely, and authentically discloses itself here on earth. As a consequence, human cognizing moves knowingly: it understands, presents, embodies, enacts, and expresses teotl.[A person who is thinking in truth will move in truth. What is truth is known by the behavior it produces. Truth produces behavior in balance and harmony with nature.]
By contrast, unknowing (illusory, befogged) cognizing is poorly if not wholly unrooted (ahnelli) in teotl. It is inauthentic, ingenuine, and undisclosing. Teotl fails to burgeon, flower, and faithfully disclose itself within such cognizing. Unknowing cognition constitutes a form of cognitive crookedness, perversity or disease. It represents one of the ways by which teotl unfaithfully and inauthentically presents -- i.e. disguises and masks -- itself here on earth.”
