4 - THE ARAB PERIPATETICS: AL-FĀRĀBĪ, IBN SĪNĀ AND IBN RUSHD; AND THE JEWISH PERIPATETICS: ABRAHAM BEN DAVID AND MOSES MAIMONIDES

Summary

The current generalisation about the three greatest Arab philosophers is that with Ibn Rushd there was a return to the original Aristotle, the shedding of ‘Neoplatonist accretions’ found in al-Fārābī and Ibn Sīnā; though sometimes they are more correctly referred to as Aristotelians. Their conception of emanation (fayḍ) alone does not justify the description, particularly when it arose, in part at least, from fidelity to Aristotelian apocrypha. Accepting that they were in the same tradition as himself, Ibn Rushd called his predecessors ‘peripatetics’. Al-Fārābī had made, in fact, a conscious new beginning in philosophy, seeking a more authentic understanding of Aristotle; subsequent Arab tradition, recognising Aristotle as first, named him ‘second master’. The short treatises of al-Kindī he ignored; though the beginnings of Arab Aristotelianism are to be found there.

AL-FĀRĀBĪ

Few of al-Fārābī's (?870–?950) many writings are available in European translation. From the available material, and from secondary studies, it is clear that his fidelity to Aristotle is greater than that of al-Kindī. Whilst it must be admitted that some Neoplatonist themes persist in his writings, for which chronology cannot account, his ontology is unmistakably radical Aristotelian. The authentic Aristotelian themes are rediscovered, as they had been by John Philoponos, after a period of Neoplatonised Aristotelianism. Clarity about Aristotle's real orientation must have come from his study of the Metaphysics.