Authority and power in al-Fārābī’s practical philosophy
Abstract
Al-Fārābī is responsible for laying the foundations of political philosophy in the lands of islam. In The virtous city, his key political text, the notion of “authority” (riyasa) occupies a central rol as it explains that, from its union with the agent intellect, virtous actions are projected onto citizens by which civic order is ensured and happiness is achieved as the ultimate goal of the ideal society. In this paper we will analyze the ways in which such actions are engendered in citizens through the concepts of “kingly crafts” (al-mihan al-malakiya) and “[royal] power” (al-mulk) undertood as faculties of the “authority” (riyasa) and attending to its role in the configuration of the “virtous city” and in the general framework of al-Fārābī’s political thought.
References
Ábed Yabri, M. (2001): El legado filosófico árabe. Alfarabi, Avicena, Avempace, Averroes, Abenjaldún. Lecturas contemporáneas, Trotta, Madrid.
Adamson, P. (2010): «The Arabic tradition», Skorupsky, J. (ed.), The Routledge companion to ethics, Routledge, Nueva York: 63-75.
Afsaruddin, A. (2006): «The ‘Islamic State’: Genealogy, Facts, and Myths», Journal of Church and State, 48: 153-173.
Al-Attar, M. (2010): Islamic ethics: divine command theory in arabo-islamic thought, Routledge, Nueva York.
Arkoun, M. (1970): Contribution à l’étude de l’humanisme arabe au IVe/Xe siècle: Miskawayh, philosophe et historien, Vrin, Paris.
Bakar, O. (1998): Classification of knowledge in islam. A study in Islamic Philosophies of Science, Islamic Texts Society, Cambridge.
Barnes, J. (2000): Aristotle. A very short introduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Butterworth, Ch. (2004): «Ethical and political philosophy», Adamson, P. y Taylor, R. (eds.), The Cambridge companion to Arabic philosophy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 266-286.
Butterworth, Ch. (2008): «What Might We Learn from al-Fārābī about Plato and Aristotle with Respect to Lawgiving?», Mélanges de l’Université Saint-Joseph, 61: 471-489.
Butterworth, Ch. (2011): «Alfarabi’s Goal: Political Philosophy, Not Political Theology», Afsaruddin, A. (ed.), Islam, the State, and Political Authority: Medieval Issues and Modern Concerns, Palgrave McMillan, Nueva York: 53-74.
Butterworth, Ch. (2013): «Law and the Common Good: To Bring about a Virtuous City or Preserve the Old Order», Boroujerdi, M. (ed.), Mirror for the Muslim Prince: Islam and the Theory of Statecraft, Syracuse University Press, Syracuse: 218-239.
Campanini, M. (2011): «Alfarabi and the Foundation of Political Theology in Islam», Afsaruddin, A. (ed.), Islam, the State, and Political Authority: Medieval Issues and Modern Concerns, Palgrave McMillan, Nueva York: 35-52.
D’Ancona, C. (2011): «Translations from Greek into Arabic», Lagerlund, H. (ed.), Encyclopedia of medieval philosophy. Philosophy between 500 and 1500, Springer, Londres/Nueva York: 1318-1333.
Davidson, H. A. (1992): Alfarabi, Avicenna and Averroes on intellect. Their cosmologies, theories of the active intellect and theories of human intellect, Oxford University Press, Nueva York.
Dunlop, D. M. (1958): «Al-Fārābī’s paraphrase of the Categories of Aristotle», The Islamic Quaterly, 4; 224-235; 5: 21-54.
Fakhry, M. (1994): Ethical theories in islam, Brill, Leiden.
Fakhry, M. (2002): Al-Fārābī. Founder of Islamic Neoplatonism, One World, Oxford.
Galston, M., (1990): Politics and Excellence: The Political Philosophy of Alfarabi, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Geoffroy, M. (2012): «Raison et foi ou raison et Loi: Le philosophe et la cité selon Averroès, d’après al-Fārābī et Ibn Bājja (Avempace)». D’Onofrio, G. (ed.), The Medieval Paradigm: Religious Thought and Philosophy, Brepols, Turnhout: 381-416.
Grabmann, M. (1941): Die mittelalterlichen Kommentaren zur Politik des Aristoteles, Munich.
Gutas, D. (1983): «Paul the Persian on the Classification of the Parts of Aristotle’s Philosophy: A Milestone between Alexandria and Bagdād», Der Islam, 60, 2: 231-267.
Gutas, D. (1999): Greek thought, Arabic culture. The Graeco-Arabic translation movement in Baghdad and early ‘abbāsid society (2nd-4th/8th-10th centuries), Routledge, Nueva York.
Gutas, D. (2004): «The Meaning of madanī in al-Fārābī’s ‘Political’ Philosophy», Mélanges de l’Université Saint-Joseph, 57: 259-282.
Gutas, D. (2006): «The Greek and Persian background of early Arabic encyclopedism», Endress, G. (ed.) Organizing knowledge. Encyclopedic activities in the pre-eighteenth century Islamic world, Brill, Leiden: 91-102.
Heck, P. L. (2002): The construction of knowledge in Islamic civilization, Brill, Leiden/Boston.
Heck, P. L. (2008): «Doubts About the Religious Community (milla) in al-Fārābī and the Brethren of Purity», Adamson, P. (ed.), In the Age of al-Fārābī: Arabic Philosophy in the Fourth/Tenth Century, Warburg Institute, Londres: 195-213.
Hutchinson, D. S. (1999): «Ethics», Barnes, J. (ed.), The Cambridge companion to Aristotle, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 195-232.
Janos, D. (2012): Method, Structure, and Development in al-Fârâbî’s Cosmology, Brill, Leiden.
Lane, E. W. (1968): An Arabic-English lexicon, Williams and Norgate, Londres, vol. IV.
Lerner, R. y Mahdi, M. (eds.) (1967): Medieval political philosophy: a sourcebook, Collier-MacMillan Limited, Toronto.
Mahdī, M. (1968): Al-Farabi’s Book of religion and related texts, Dār al-Mašriq Publishers, Beirut.
Mahdī, M. (2001): Alfarabi and the Foundation of Islamic Political Philosophy, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
March, A. (2013): «Islamic political theory», Gaus, G. y D’Agostino, F. (ed.), The Routledge companion to social and political philosophy, Routledge, Nueva York: 204-214.
McGinnis, J. (2019): «Islamic ethics», Williams, T. (ed.), The Cambridge companion to medieval ethics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 77-100.
Neria, Ch. (2013): «Al-Fārābī’s lost commentary on the ethics: new textual evidence», Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, 23: 69-99.
Özturan, H. (2019): «The Practical Philosophy of Al-Farabi and Avicenna: A Comparison», Nazariyat, 5/1: 1-35.
Pines, S. (1975): «Aristotle’s Politics in Arabic Philosophy», Israel Oriental Studies, 5: 150-160.
Plessner, M. (1993): «Mulk», Bosworth, C. E.; Van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P.; Pellat, C. (ed.), The encyclopaedia of islam, Brill, Leiden, Vol. VII: 546-547.
Ramón Guerrero, R. (2008): Al-Fārābī. Obras filosóficas y políticas, Trotta, Madrid.
Ramón Guerrero, R. (2014): «Recepción de la Ética Nicomaquea en el mundo árabe: la teoría de la virtud en la filosofía islámica», Studia Graeco-Arabica, 4: 315-334.
Reeve, C. D. C. (2006): Philosopher-kings: the argument of Plato’s Republic, Hackett Publishing Company, Indianápolis/Cambridge.
Reisman, D. (2004): Al-Fārābī and the philosophical curriculum, Adamson, P. y Taylor, R. (eds.), The Cambridge companion to Arabic philosophy, Cambridge. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 52-71.
Rosenthal, E. (1962): Political thought in medieval islam, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Rudolph, U. (2012): «Abû Nasr al-Fârâbî», Rudolph, U. y Würsch, R. (eds.), Philosophie in der islamischen Welt, Jahrhundert, Basilea, Vol. 1: 363-457.
Sedley, D. (2007): «Philosophy, the forms, and the art of ruling», Ferrari, G. R. F. (ed.), The Cambridge companion to Plato’s Republic, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 256-283.
Shields, C. (2007): Aristotle, Routledge, Nueva York.
Taylor, C. C. W. (1999): «Politics», Barnes, J. (ed.) The Cambridge companion to Aristotle, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 233-258.
Vallat, Ph. (2004): Farabi et l’École d’Alexandrie. Des prémisses de la connaissance à la philosophie politique, Vrin, Paris.
Velarde Lombraña, J. (2002): «Ábed Yabri, Mohamed, El legado filosófico árabe. Alfarabi, Avicena, Avempace, Averroes, Abenjaldún. Lecturas contemporáneas (trad. esp. Manuel C. Feria García), Madrid (Trotta), 2001» Aljamía. Anuario de información bibliográfica, 14: 281-286.
Walzer, R. (1985): Al-Farabi on the perfect state, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Walzer, R. (1991): «Al-Fārābī», Lewis, B., Pellat, Ch. & Schacht, J. (eds.) The encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. II, Brill, Leiden: 778-781.
Copyright (c) 2024 Pablo Gabriel Quintana, Dr.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The articles published in Cuadernos del Cemyr are distributed through the web portal of the Publications Service of the University of La Laguna and are freely accessible under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
Authors retain the copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication of the work, as well as a Creative Commons license that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the authorship of the work and its initial publication in this scientific journal.
Authors may separately establish additional agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in Cuadernos del Cemyr (for example, publishing it in an institutional repository or in a book), with acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
