| Title | Imposing Alfarabi on Plato: Averroes’s Novel Placement of the Platonic City |
| Type | Book Section |
| Language | English |
| Date | 2022 |
| Published in | Plato's Republic in the Islamic Context. New Perspectives on Averroes's Commentary |
| Pages | 19–39 |
| Categories | al-Fārābī, Galen, Aristotle, Plato, Politics, Commentary |
| Author(s) | Alexander Orwin |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Translator(s) |
| Averroes's Commentary on Plato's “Republic” goes far beyond merely commenting on the original. With the benefit of 1,500 years of hindsight, it reckons with important works of philosophy that would have been completely unknown to Plato. Averroes mentions three authors of such works by name: Galen, whom he mostly rebukes, Aristotle, and Alfarabi. It would be hasty to assert that by including such extraneous material, Averroes departs from Plato, but, at the very least, he updates him on account of historical developments. The importance of Averroes's post-Platonic additions is evident from the very structure of the work. The part of it that can plausibly claim to be a commentary on Plato does not begin until 27.24, almost seven pages into Rosenthal's Hebrew text. Averroes begins to address the subject of war, corresponding to Republic 374b, having skipped all of book 1 and the majority of book 2, with only two brief references to them in the opening section (CR 22.27–30, 23.31–33, cf. 47.29–30and 105.25–27). Averroes does not justify his omission until the very end of the work, when he states that the opening part of the Republic does not contain any of the demonstrative arguments of which his commentary is comprised (CR 105.25–27, cf. 21.4). He is more immediately forthright about the reasons for what he includes in its place. In keeping with the demonstrative focus of the work, Averroes replaces Platonic dialectic with a substantial discussion of science. Having divided practical science into two parts, one about general habits and actions and another about their implementation, Averroes explains: “Before we begin a point-by-point explanation of what is in these arguments [of Plato], we ought to mention the things pertinent to this [second] part [of practical science] and explained in the first part, that serve as foundation for what we wish to say here at the beginning” (CR 22.6–8). Averroes's introduction concerns above all the first part of political science, while the Republic proper contains only the second. Averroes attributes to Plato only a small part of the ensuing discussion, concerning justice, the division of labor, and the arrangement of the soul (CR 22.22–24.6, esp. 22.27, 23.31). The other passages are inspired by Aristotle and especially Alfarabi. Averroes appears to substitute scientific arguments from Aristotle and Alfarabi—mainly about science, philosophy, courage, and war—for Plato's dialectical introduction about justice and the founding of the just city. |
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Averroes does not justify his omission until the very end of the work, when he states that the opening part of the Republic does not contain any of the demonstrative arguments of which his commentary is comprised (CR 105.25\u201327, cf. 21.4). He is more immediately forthright about the reasons for what he includes in its place. In keeping with the demonstrative focus of the work, Averroes replaces Platonic dialectic with a substantial discussion of science. Having divided practical science into two parts, one about general habits and actions and another about their implementation, Averroes explains: \u201cBefore we begin a point-by-point explanation of what is in these arguments [of Plato], we ought to mention the things pertinent to this [second] part [of practical science] and explained in the first part, that serve as foundation for what we wish to say here at the beginning\u201d (CR 22.6\u20138). 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| Title | Aristotle’s Rhetoric and Political Thought in the Christian Orient and in al-Fârâbî, Avicenna and Averroes |
| Type | Book Section |
| Language | English |
| Date | 2019 |
| Published in | The Aristotelian Tradition in Syriac |
| Pages | 249–259 |
| Categories | Rhetoric, Politics, al-Fārābī, Avicenna, Aristotle |
| Author(s) | John W. Watt |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Translator(s) |
| Given the remarkable fact that Aristotle’s Rhetoric appears to have had little influence outside the area of logic in late antiquity, but was very influential in Islamic political philosophy, the chapter examines whether the Syriac tradition can help to explain this development. The late antique Platonic concept of philosophical rhetoric, Themistius’ political thought, and their echoes in the Rhetoric of Antony of Tagrit are examined, and compared with the ideas expressed in the writings on rhetoric of al-Fārābī, Avicenna, Averroes, and Bar Hebraeus. |
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| Title | Aristotle’s Rhetoric and Political Thought in the Christian Orient and in al-Fârâbî, Avicenna and Averroes |
| Type | Book Section |
| Language | English |
| Date | 2011 |
| Published in | Well Begun is Only Half Done: Tracing Aristotle’s Political Ideas in Medieval Arabic, Syriac, Byzantine, and Jewish Sources |
| Pages | 17–47 |
| Categories | Rhetoric, Politics, al-Fārābī, Avicenna, Aristotle |
| Author(s) | John W. Watt |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Translator(s) |
| see also the Chapter under the same title in John W. Watt "The Aristotelian Tradition in Syriac". |
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| Title | Prophecy Between Poetics and Politics from Al-Farabi to Leo Strauss |
| Type | Article |
| Language | English |
| Journal | International Journal of the Classical Tradition |
| Pages | 1-29 |
| Categories | al-Fārābī, Avicenna, Maimonides, Aristotle, Poetics, Rhetoric, Politics, Tradition and Reception |
| Author(s) | Peter Makhlouf |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Translator(s) |
| Judaeo-Arabic prophetology, as developed in the wake of Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy, was highly attentive to the kind of representational modes produced by divine revelation and their political use—but also their political precarity. By drawing on another corpus, less often discussed in this context, the Arabic commentaries on Aristotle's Poetics and Rhetoric, this study proposes to undertake a close analysis of how the medieval thinkers in question (Al-Farabi, Avicenna, Averroes, and Maimonides) understood the poetics of prophecy to function. What emerges is an account of how the political theo-logic of poetics and rhetoric—as developed with respect to terms such as imitation, imagination and visualization—came to play a central role in the theory of prophecy, and how that theory of prophecy in turn gave rise to an understanding of what Leo Strauss once termed the ‘literary character’ of these philosophers' ‘art of writing’. |
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| Title | Aristotle’s Rhetoric and Political Thought in the Christian Orient and in al-Fârâbî, Avicenna and Averroes |
| Type | Book Section |
| Language | English |
| Date | 2019 |
| Published in | The Aristotelian Tradition in Syriac |
| Pages | 249–259 |
| Categories | Rhetoric, Politics, al-Fārābī, Avicenna, Aristotle |
| Author(s) | John W. Watt |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Translator(s) |
| Given the remarkable fact that Aristotle’s Rhetoric appears to have had little influence outside the area of logic in late antiquity, but was very influential in Islamic political philosophy, the chapter examines whether the Syriac tradition can help to explain this development. The late antique Platonic concept of philosophical rhetoric, Themistius’ political thought, and their echoes in the Rhetoric of Antony of Tagrit are examined, and compared with the ideas expressed in the writings on rhetoric of al-Fārābī, Avicenna, Averroes, and Bar Hebraeus. |
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| Title | Aristotle’s Rhetoric and Political Thought in the Christian Orient and in al-Fârâbî, Avicenna and Averroes |
| Type | Book Section |
| Language | English |
| Date | 2011 |
| Published in | Well Begun is Only Half Done: Tracing Aristotle’s Political Ideas in Medieval Arabic, Syriac, Byzantine, and Jewish Sources |
| Pages | 17–47 |
| Categories | Rhetoric, Politics, al-Fārābī, Avicenna, Aristotle |
| Author(s) | John W. Watt |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Translator(s) |
| see also the Chapter under the same title in John W. Watt "The Aristotelian Tradition in Syriac". |
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| Title | Imposing Alfarabi on Plato: Averroes’s Novel Placement of the Platonic City |
| Type | Book Section |
| Language | English |
| Date | 2022 |
| Published in | Plato's Republic in the Islamic Context. New Perspectives on Averroes's Commentary |
| Pages | 19–39 |
| Categories | al-Fārābī, Galen, Aristotle, Plato, Politics, Commentary |
| Author(s) | Alexander Orwin |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Translator(s) |
| Averroes's Commentary on Plato's “Republic” goes far beyond merely commenting on the original. With the benefit of 1,500 years of hindsight, it reckons with important works of philosophy that would have been completely unknown to Plato. Averroes mentions three authors of such works by name: Galen, whom he mostly rebukes, Aristotle, and Alfarabi. It would be hasty to assert that by including such extraneous material, Averroes departs from Plato, but, at the very least, he updates him on account of historical developments. The importance of Averroes's post-Platonic additions is evident from the very structure of the work. The part of it that can plausibly claim to be a commentary on Plato does not begin until 27.24, almost seven pages into Rosenthal's Hebrew text. Averroes begins to address the subject of war, corresponding to Republic 374b, having skipped all of book 1 and the majority of book 2, with only two brief references to them in the opening section (CR 22.27–30, 23.31–33, cf. 47.29–30and 105.25–27). Averroes does not justify his omission until the very end of the work, when he states that the opening part of the Republic does not contain any of the demonstrative arguments of which his commentary is comprised (CR 105.25–27, cf. 21.4). He is more immediately forthright about the reasons for what he includes in its place. In keeping with the demonstrative focus of the work, Averroes replaces Platonic dialectic with a substantial discussion of science. Having divided practical science into two parts, one about general habits and actions and another about their implementation, Averroes explains: “Before we begin a point-by-point explanation of what is in these arguments [of Plato], we ought to mention the things pertinent to this [second] part [of practical science] and explained in the first part, that serve as foundation for what we wish to say here at the beginning” (CR 22.6–8). Averroes's introduction concerns above all the first part of political science, while the Republic proper contains only the second. Averroes attributes to Plato only a small part of the ensuing discussion, concerning justice, the division of labor, and the arrangement of the soul (CR 22.22–24.6, esp. 22.27, 23.31). The other passages are inspired by Aristotle and especially Alfarabi. Averroes appears to substitute scientific arguments from Aristotle and Alfarabi—mainly about science, philosophy, courage, and war—for Plato's dialectical introduction about justice and the founding of the just city. |
{"_index":"bib","_type":"_doc","_id":"5347","_score":null,"_source":{"id":5347,"authors_free":[{"id":6197,"entry_id":5347,"agent_type":"person","is_normalised":1,"person_id":1790,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":1,"role_name":"author"},"free_name":"Alexander Orwin","free_first_name":"Alexander","free_last_name":"Orwin","norm_person":{"id":1790,"first_name":" Alexander","last_name":" Orwin","full_name":" Alexander Orwin","short_ident":"","is_classical_name":null,"dnb_url":"https:\/\/d-nb.info\/1153328348","viaf_url":"","db_url":"","from_claudius":null,"link":"bib?authors[]= Alexander Orwin"}}],"entry_title":"Imposing Alfarabi on Plato: Averroes\u2019s Novel Placement of the Platonic City","title_transcript":"","title_translation":"","main_title":{"title":"Imposing Alfarabi on Plato: Averroes\u2019s Novel Placement of the Platonic City"},"abstract":"Averroes's Commentary on Plato's \u201cRepublic\u201d goes far beyond merely commenting on the original. With the benefit of 1,500 years of hindsight, it reckons with important works of philosophy that would have been completely unknown to Plato. Averroes mentions three authors of such works by name: Galen, whom he mostly rebukes, Aristotle, and Alfarabi. It would be hasty to assert that by including such extraneous material, Averroes departs from Plato, but, at the very least, he updates him on account of historical developments.\r\n\r\nThe importance of Averroes's post-Platonic additions is evident from the very structure of the work. The part of it that can plausibly claim to be a commentary on Plato does not begin until 27.24, almost seven pages into Rosenthal's Hebrew text. Averroes begins to address the subject of war, corresponding to Republic 374b, having skipped all of book 1 and the majority of book 2, with only two brief references to them in the opening section (CR 22.27\u201330, 23.31\u201333, cf. 47.29\u201330and 105.25\u201327). Averroes does not justify his omission until the very end of the work, when he states that the opening part of the Republic does not contain any of the demonstrative arguments of which his commentary is comprised (CR 105.25\u201327, cf. 21.4). He is more immediately forthright about the reasons for what he includes in its place. In keeping with the demonstrative focus of the work, Averroes replaces Platonic dialectic with a substantial discussion of science. Having divided practical science into two parts, one about general habits and actions and another about their implementation, Averroes explains: \u201cBefore we begin a point-by-point explanation of what is in these arguments [of Plato], we ought to mention the things pertinent to this [second] part [of practical science] and explained in the first part, that serve as foundation for what we wish to say here at the beginning\u201d (CR 22.6\u20138). Averroes's introduction concerns above all the first part of political science, while the Republic proper contains only the second. Averroes attributes to Plato only a small part of the ensuing discussion, concerning justice, the division of labor, and the arrangement of the soul (CR 22.22\u201324.6, esp. 22.27, 23.31). The other passages are inspired by Aristotle and especially Alfarabi. Averroes appears to substitute scientific arguments from Aristotle and Alfarabi\u2014mainly about science, philosophy, courage, and war\u2014for Plato's dialectical introduction about justice and the founding of the just city.","btype":2,"date":"2022","language":"English","online_url":"","doi_url":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/9781800104983.002","ti_url":"","categories":[{"id":28,"category_name":"al-F\u0101r\u0101b\u012b","link":"bib?categories[]=al-F\u0101r\u0101b\u012b"},{"id":30,"category_name":"Galen","link":"bib?categories[]=Galen"},{"id":21,"category_name":"Aristotle","link":"bib?categories[]=Aristotle"},{"id":20,"category_name":"Plato","link":"bib?categories[]=Plato"},{"id":4,"category_name":"Politics","link":"bib?categories[]=Politics"},{"id":23,"category_name":"Commentary","link":"bib?categories[]=Commentary"}],"authors":[{"id":1790,"full_name":" Alexander Orwin","role":1}],"works":[],"republication_of":null,"translation_of":null,"new_edition_of":null,"book":null,"booksection":{"id":5347,"section_of":5346,"pages":"19\u201339","is_catalog":null,"book":{"id":5346,"bilderberg_idno":null,"dare_idno":null,"catalog_idno":null,"entry_type":"bibliography","type":4,"language":"en","title":"Plato's Republic in the Islamic Context. New Perspectives on Averroes's Commentary","title_transcript":"","title_translation":"","short_title":"","has_no_author":null,"volume":null,"date":"2022","edition_no":null,"free_date":null,"abstract":"","republication_of":0,"online_url":"","online_resources":null,"translation_of":"0","new_edition_of":"0","is_catalog":0,"in_bibliography":0,"is_inactive":0,"notes":null,"ti_url":"","doi_url":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/9781800104983","book":{"id":5346,"pubplace":"","publisher":" Boydell & Brewer","series":"","volume":"","edition_no":"","valid_from":null,"valid_until":null},"persons":[{"id":6196,"entry_id":5346,"agent_type":"person","is_normalised":null,"person_id":null,"institution_id":null,"role":{"id":2,"role_name":"editor"},"free_name":" Alexander Orwin","free_first_name":" Alexander","free_last_name":" Orwin","norm_person":null}]}},"article":null},"sort":["Imposing Alfarabi on Plato: Averroes\u2019s Novel Placement of the Platonic City"]}
| Title | Prophecy Between Poetics and Politics from Al-Farabi to Leo Strauss |
| Type | Article |
| Language | English |
| Journal | International Journal of the Classical Tradition |
| Pages | 1-29 |
| Categories | al-Fārābī, Avicenna, Maimonides, Aristotle, Poetics, Rhetoric, Politics, Tradition and Reception |
| Author(s) | Peter Makhlouf |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Translator(s) |
| Judaeo-Arabic prophetology, as developed in the wake of Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy, was highly attentive to the kind of representational modes produced by divine revelation and their political use—but also their political precarity. By drawing on another corpus, less often discussed in this context, the Arabic commentaries on Aristotle's Poetics and Rhetoric, this study proposes to undertake a close analysis of how the medieval thinkers in question (Al-Farabi, Avicenna, Averroes, and Maimonides) understood the poetics of prophecy to function. What emerges is an account of how the political theo-logic of poetics and rhetoric—as developed with respect to terms such as imitation, imagination and visualization—came to play a central role in the theory of prophecy, and how that theory of prophecy in turn gave rise to an understanding of what Leo Strauss once termed the ‘literary character’ of these philosophers' ‘art of writing’. |
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