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‘‘IF IT WERE GOD WHO SENT THEM . . .’’: ARISTOTLE AND AL-FĀRĀBĪ ON PROPHETIC VISION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2008

W. CRAIG STREETMAN
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Kentucky, 1415 Patterson Office Tower, Lexington, KY 40506, USA Email: streetman@uky.edu

Abstract

Al-Fārābī’s title of ‘‘Second Teacher’’ after Aristotle is well-warranted. Al-Fārābī’s work serves to illuminate the writings of the ‘‘First Teacher’’ in interesting and overlooked ways that go beyond the parameters of Aristotelian logic. Credence is lent to this assessment through the analysis of a specific topic, namely, authentic prophetic vision. At first glance, this seems like a strange assertion to make given Aristotle’s apparent skepticism and indifference regarding the topic of prophecy. However, as this paper will show, there is a latent theory of prophetic vision in the extant texts of Aristotle that al-Fārābī recognizes and completes in a way that is, in large part, faithful to and consistent with the corpus of Aristotle as we read it today. In the end, al-Fārābī provides insight into how a properly Aristotelian theory of authentic prophetic vision could be realized.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright Cambridge University Press 2008

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