Alfarabi, The Political Writings

Philosophical thought

Pages from a 17th-century manuscript of al-Farabi's commentary on Aristotle's metaphysics

Influences

The main influence on al-Farabi's philosophy was the Aristotelian tradition of Alexandria. A prolific writer, he is credited with over one hundred works.[74] Amongst these are a number of prolegomena to philosophy, commentaries on important Aristotelian works (such as the Nicomachean Ethics) as well as his own works. His ideas are marked by their coherency, despite drawing together of many different philosophical disciplines and traditions. Some other significant influences on his work were the planetary model of Ptolemy and elements of Neo-Platonism,[75] particularly metaphysics and practical (or political) philosophy (which bears more resemblance to Plato's Republic than Aristotle's Politics).[76]}

al-Farabi, Aristotle, Maimonides

In the handing down of Aristotle's thought to the Christian west in the middle ages, al-Farabi played an essential part as appears in the translation of al-Farabi's Commentary and Short Treatise on Aristotle's de Interpretatione that F.W. Zimmermann published in 1981. Al-Farabi had a great influence on Maimonides, the most important Jewish thinker of the middle ages. Maimonides wrote in Arabic the celebrated Maqala fi sina at al-mantiq (Treatise on logic), in a wonderfully concise way. The work treats of the essentials of Aristotelian logic in the light of comments made by the Persian philosophers: Avicenna and, above all, al-Farabi. Rémi Brague in his book devoted to the Treatise stresses the fact that al-Farabi is the only thinker mentioned therein.

Al-Farabi as well as Avicenna and Averroes have been recognized as Peripatetics (al-Mashsha’iyun) or rationalists (Estedlaliun) among Muslims.[77][78][79] However, he tried to gather the ideas of Plato and Aristotle in his book Harmonization of the Opinion of the Two Sage.[80][O]

According to Reisman, his work was singularly directed towards the goal of simultaneously reviving and reinventing the Alexandrian philosophical tradition, to which his Christian teacher, Yuhanna ibn Haylan belonged.[81] His success should be measured by the honorific title of the "Second Master" of philosophy,[C] Aristotle being the first, by which he was known.[82][83] Reisman also says that he does not make any reference to the ideas of either al-Kindi or his contemporary, Rhazes, which clearly indicates that he did not consider their approach to philosophy as a correct or viable one.[81]


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