Politics and Metaphysics: Alfarabi's Political Thought Revisited

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This panel will reevaluate, in light of new scholarly research, the long standing debate regarding Alfarabi’s (d. 950) political and metaphysical teachings. The debate centers on the fundamental character of Alfarabi’s philosophy: is it rooted in the Aristotelian notion of man’s essential nature as rational and political animal, or rooted in a view of man’s nature, informed by Neoplatonism, that privileges the metaphysical over the political, and revelation over reason. The implication of this debate is a serious one for philosophy in general, and political philosophy in particular, as it concerns the very definition of what is human. New scholarly research, that includes Charles Butterworth’s Alfarabi, The Political Writings, Vol. 2 and Damien Janos’ Method, Structure, and Development in al-Farabi’s Cosmology, among other new publications on the subject, allow the panelists to shed new light on this debate and provide a greater depth to the understanding of the history of philosophy in the Medieval period. This panel will address four central questions in this debate. First, what was Neoplatonism, what were its metaphysical principles, and what would have been its political implications? Second, what are some of Alfarabi’s apparent Neoplatonic adaptations? Third, what might explain the striking Neoplatonic appearance of Alfarabi’s writings? And fourth, how does the Medieval Jewish adoption of Neoplatonism differ from Alfarabi’s?

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 2: Foundations of Political Theory

Individual Presentations

• The Rootedness of the Active Intellect - Miriam Galston

• Alfarabi’s Harmonization: Inauthentic, Neoplatonic, or Exoteric? - Joshua S. Parens, University of Dallas

• Neoplatonism and Alfarabi’s Politics - Christopher Colmo, Dominican University

• Alfarabi’s Teachings on Phronesis and Maimonides’ Seeming Disinterest in Them - Steven Harvey, Bar-Ilan University

Chair

• Rene Paddags

Discussant

• Therese Anne Druart The Catholic University of America