Divine Revelation in the Philosophical Essays of al-Fārābī in Comparison with the Mystical Thoughts of Ibn ‘Arabī

One of the most important concepts discussed in Islamic sciences is the explanation of divine revelation. Al-Fārābī and Ibn ‘Arabī are among the leading Islamic thinkers who have tried to explain divine revelation according to their style and school of thought. Al-Fārābī considers revelation as receiving knowledge from the active intellect while Ibn ‘Arabī considers it as the revelation of abstract rational meanings from God to the prophets. Examining and comparing their views on divine revelation can acquaint us with their thoughts on how the revelation and its quality came about as well as their intellectual similarities and differences. Employing a descriptive-analytical method, this article examines the essence of revelation in the thought of these two scholars. It also analyzes the quality and degree of revelation in their minds. The discussion ends with a comparison of their views on this issue. Al-Fārābī and Ibn ‘Arabī consider revelation as a divine command revealed by God directly or indirectly to the prophets to guide their people. While al-Fārābī tries to explain the revelation based on the prominent role of the Active Intellect, Ibn ‘Arabī pays attention to the issue of divine grace in sending of the revelation and the imagination of the prophets.

Divine and angelic cognition in St. Thomas Aquinas

In the first part of the Summa theologiae St. Thomas Aquinas analyzes the cognition in God, angels and human beings; he does that by comparing and juxtaposing them. On the one side, the questions concerning divine cognition, such as the identity of the divine cognition and the divine substance, its nondiscursivity, its scope or future contingents are considered in the articles dedicated to the angels. On the other side, the proper characteristics of the human cognition in the part of the Summa on human soul, such as the active intellect, lack of inborn intelligible species, the inductive procedure in the abstracting from sense cognition, the cognition of the particulars, those problems are analyzed in the part on angelic cognition too. So, there is a structural symmetry of corresponding questions in the Summa on divine, angelic and human cognition.

Externalist and Internalist Interpretations of Aristotle’s De Anima 3.5. The Psychology of Alexander of Aphrodisias As a Possible Remedy to the Thomistic Monopoly. Introductory Considerations

This paper is devoted to Alexander of Aphrodisias, the Exegete, whose theory is gaining popularity among Aristotelian scholars as a possible solution to manifold interpretation problems created by Aristotle’s De Anima 3.5 due to its brevity and obscurity. I recommend Alexander’s solution as a remedy for two main predicaments concerning the notorious second intellect called enigmatically nous poietikos: the mysterious (if any) function of active intellect, and Thomistic monopoly in the field of Aristotle’s psychology (and theology). In other words, I believe that the externalist interpretations which identify nous poietikos with the Deity or a noetic sphere are more appropriate than the internalist ones that include the productive mind in our mental apparatus (Aquinas being the most famous partisan of this view). This is why I believe Alexander (an externalist), who remains rather unknown to scholars focused outside ancient philosophy, should be introduced to the broader public, especially because he inspired the Arabic philosophy, which is also an alternative to internalism (often overlapping with theistic readings). This introduction, alongside shedding light on some psychological issues, is the main aim of my paper.

The Islamization of Aristotelism in the Metaphysics of Ibn Sina

The article analyzes the activity of the greatest classic of the Islamic philosophy - Ibn Sina (Avicenna, 980-1037), aimed at the revision of Aristotelianism, mainly in terms of its synthesis with Islamic monotheism. Preferential attention is paid to the metaphysical section of Avicennian multivolume encyclopedia “The Healing” (c. 1020-1027). Instead of Aristotelian God / the Prime Mover as the final cause, which serves as the source of the movement of the world, Avicenna establishes God / Necessary Being, who acts as the Giver of being. Developing the ontological foundation of creationism, i.e. the creation of every thing in the world, the philosopher introduces a distinction between essence and existence ( māhiyyawujūd , lat. essentia-existentia), which will pass through the subsequent history of philosophy. Ibn Sina thoroughly modifies the Aristotelian doctrine of the unity of God and His essential cataphatic attributes. The intellectual narcissism of God, Who only knows Himself in Stagirite, he changes with the concept of Divine Omniscience and His providence of all existents. Ibn Sina transforms Aristotelian eternalism into eternalistic creationism, modifying the emanationist scheme of cosmogenesis advanced by al-Farabi (d. 950), in which the process of proceeding of the existents from the First Principle appears as an intellectual act. The Muslim philosopher complements Aristotelian cosmology with the doctrine of angels, whom he identifies with cosmic intellects and souls as the governors of the celestial spheres. Avicennian radical innovation is in the doctrine of Active Intellect ( al-‘akl al-fa‘‘al , lat. intellectus agens ), who is not only the ruler of the sublunar world, but actually is its demiurge. This intellect is assigned with the function of the illumination of the human intellect, as well as with the role of the archangel Gabriel the transmitter of divine revelation according to Muslim tradition. From the philosophical perspective, Avicenna develops alien to Aristotelianism topics related to the prophecy and revelation, the immortality of the soul and its otherworldly fate.

Ibn Rushd. The Great Commentary on Aristotle’s ‘De Anima’ (Book III, Comment. 20)

The second part of the publication, which has been started in the previous issue of the journal, presents the translation of the fi nal fragment of the commentary of the prominent Arab- Muslim philosopher Ibn Rushd (Averroes, d. 1198) made by him to the fi fth chapter of the third book of the Aristotelian treatise “On the Soul”. The incorruptibility in this chapter, which traditionally is attributed exclusively to the active intellect, was interpreted by Ibn Rushd as primarily characterizing the material intellect. Affi rming the immanence of the active intellect, the Commentator emphasizes its status as a form for material intellect and points out to its aff ability on the part of the intentions of the imaginative forms. Here the author also substantiates the Aristotle’s thesis concerning the cessation of remembrance after the separation of the soul from the body.

FILSAFAT IBN THUFAYL DAN NOVEL HAYY BIN YAQDHAN

Hayy bin Yaqdhan is a treatise aimed at providing a scientific explanation of the beginnings of human life on earth. This treatise is Ibn Thufayl’s presentation of knowledge, which seeks to harmonize Aristotle with Neo-Platonists on the one hand, and Al-Ghazali with Ibn Bajjah on the other. Ibn Thufayl followed the middle way, bridging the gap between the two parties.Hayy bin Yaqdhan is a thought experiment. It was built on Ibn Sina’s thought experiment about “Flying Man” which calls for a living human mind, driven by the Active Intellect, the principle by which God communicates His truth to the human mind and establishes order and intelligence to nature.The findings of Ibn Thufayl’s thought experiment with his fiction is that language, culture, religion, and tradition are not essential for the development of a perfect mind even, perhaps, blocking its progress. This result shows a hard slap for social structures that exist in general and specifically Institutional Islam. Social criticism, which complements Ibn Thufayl’s critical message, is not left implicit. The criticism was explained in the meeting between Hayy bin Yaqdhan and members of a society governed by the religion of prophetic revelation. Ibn Thufayl has expressed Neo-Platonism postulates about religious harmony and philosophy.

Jewish philosophy of the middle ages about the spiritual and cultural context of the human responsibility

The article examines the cultural and spiritual context of the idea of responsibility. Medieval jewish philosophy continued the traditions of ancient greek and early medieval thought in Europe in the sense that a person needs to turn to an active intellect, to rise above the empirical passions. Based on the ideas of Maimonides and Ibn Gabirol, it is established that a person should be responsible not only for his actions, but also for his thoughts. The mundane, the earthly, contains something higher than "necessary being". When people act spiritually, they reduce the distance between themselves and God. If the people are constantly striving for the new, it is a sign of their fatigue. What is new is that people want an end to slavery. But man lives by the future, by faith in the Saviour-king. The peoples of Russia can't be satisfied with an abstract future. Their power of being is determined by the solution of ethical and social problems.