PREFACE

vii

LIFE AND WORKS

ix

INTRODUCTION

CHARACTERS OF ALFARABI'S PHILOSOPHY

xiii

WHAT MUST PRECEDE THE STUDY OF PHILOSOPHY

xiv

DEFINITION AND DIVISION OF PHILOSOPHY

xvi

PART ONE. LOGICAL

CHAPTER I. LOGIC

MENTAL OPERATIONS

1

CATEGORIES

2

CERTAIN QUESTIONS ON THE CATEGORIES

3

PART TWO. THEORETICAL

CHAPTER II. METAPHYSICS

ONTOLOGY

10

    Universals

10

    Description of Being

12

    Transcendental Properties of Being

13

    Division of Being into Necessary and Contingent

13

    Principles of Being, Potentiality and Actuality

13

    The First Principles

15

METAPHYSICAL THEOLOGY

18

    Knowability of God

18

    Proofs of God's Existence

19

    Attributes of God

22

        a) Process of Exclusion  23

           Simplicity of God

23

           Infinity of God

25

           Immutability of God

25

           Unity of God

26

        b) Process of pre-Eminence

27

           God is Intelligent

27

           God Knows All Things through Knowledge of Himself

28

p. xii

           God is Truth

28

           God is Life

28

METAPHYSICAL COSMOLOGY

30

    Relation of God to the World

30

    Eternity of Matter and Eternity of the World

31

    Dualism of Good and Evil

32

METAPHYSICAL PSYCHOLOGY

34

    The Soul Is a Being Quite Distinct from the Body

34

    Spirituality of the Human Soul

34

    Immortality of the Human Soul

35

CHAPTER III. PSYCHOLOGY

A GENERAL OUTLINE OF THE POWERS OF THE SOUL

37

    1. Powers of Knowledge

38

       Sense-Knowledge

38

       Perceptive Knowledge

40

       Abstractive Knowledge

41

    2. Powers of Action

45

       Sensitive Appetite

45

       Intellective Appetite

46

PART THREE. PRACTICAL

CHAPTER IV. ETHICS

ACTIONS GOOD, BAD, OR INDIFFERENT

49

CHAPTER V. POLITICAL SOCIETY

DESCRIPTION OF THE MODEL STATE

50

CONCLUDING CHAPTER

THREE CONCLUSIONS

54

BIBLIOGRAPHY

57

INDEX

59