Al-Farabi, Founder of Islamic Neoplatonism

Majid Fakhry is Emeritus Professor at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, and Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University, Washington, DC. He has also taught philosphy in Lebanon and the UK, and his publications include Averroes: His Life, Works and Influence.

• PrefaceIntroduction 1 LIFE AND WORKS 2 AL-FĀRĀBI AND THE GREEK LEGACYThe genesis of philosophyPhilosophy and religionPresocratics, stoics and peripateticsPlato and his philosophyThe philosophy of AristotleThe harmony of Plato and Aristotle 3 THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE SCIENCESThe interrelation of the sciencesLogic and mathematicsPhysics and metaphysicsEthics and politicsThe Islamic sciences 4 AL-FĀRĀBI AS LOGICIANThe logical corpusThe analysis of logical termsThe demonstrative artRhetoric and poetics 5 THEORY OF KNOWLEDGEThe nature of scientific knowledgeThe various senses of the term ‘intellect’ (‘aql)The Active Intellect 6 EMANATION VERSUS CREATIONThe Neoplatonic legacyThe nature of the First Being or the OneThe intellect, as the first emanationThe heavenly bodiesThe material worldThe human soul and its facultiesProphecy and the imaginative faculty 7 ETHICAL THEORYThe attainment of happinessThe moral virtues and their acquisitionEvil and not-beingJustice and friendship   8 POLITICAL THEORYThe principles of political associationThe master organ and the master ruler (ra’īs)The qualification of the chief ruler (ra’īs)The virtuous cityThe non-virtuous citiesThe outgrowths (nawābit) as a hybrid classLawlessness and discordPolitical justice and religious pietyThe fate of the soul after death 9 AL-FĀRĀBI AND MUSIC 10 AL-FĀRĀBI IN HISTORYThe triumph of NeoplatonismAl-Fārābi’s philosophical legacyAl-Ghazāli’s onslaught on Al-Fārābi and Ibn SīnaIbn Bājjah and the Andalusian interludeIbn Rushd (Averroes)Neoplatonism and SufismAl-Fārābi and the West ConclusionAppendixBibliographyIndex