Article ID: CBB001553171

Al-Farabi's Cave: Aristotle's Logic and the Ways of Socrates and Thrasymachus (2015)

unapi

In his commentary on Aristotle's Rhetoric al-Farabi harmonizes Plato and Aristotle in terms of philosophic education by ordering Aristotle's eight logical works onto Plato's famous image of the cave. He represents the way out of the cave with Aristotle's four logical works of ascent (Categories, On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, and Posterior Analytics) and the return into the cave through Aristotle's four logical works of the descent (Topics, Sophistical Refutations, Rhetoric, and Poetics). Al-Farabi's image of ascent and descent also alludes to Socrates' conception of protreptic education in Book VII of the Republic. In essence, protreptic education consists in the Socratic art that freely turns the soul from the images and political interpretations of things to being itself. In this essay I argue that for al-Farabi the four logical works of ascent guide the soul to free itself from its habituations so as to contemplate real beings, particularly the good of one's own soul and the souls of one's fellow citizens. Yet the ruler needs to use the arts of “descent,” as demonstrated by Thrasymachus, in order to rule the city well. The way of Socrates consists of the logical methods used to come to possess knowledge of being, while the way of Thrasymachus comprises the methods of persuasion to habituate citizens and protect the philosophic quest for the truth. Al-Farabi, I conclude, combines the way of Socrates and the way of Thrasymachus in order to show that both ways are useful and necessary for good governance.

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Authors & Contributors
Wolfsdorf, David
Janne Mattila
Vallejo Villalobos, José Ramón
Zonta, Mauro
Thom, Paul
Streetman, W. Craig
Concepts
Logic
Philosophy
Arab/Islamic world, civilization and culture
Aristotelianism
Neoplatonism
Platonism
Time Periods
Medieval
10th century
Ancient
9th century
14th century
12th century
Places
Greece
Middle and Near East
Andalusia (Spain)
Mediterranean region
Byzantium
Europe
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