Description
Book SynopsisThe philosopher Abu Nasr al-Farabi (c. 870-c. 950 CE) is a key Arabic intermediary figure. He knew Aristotle, and in particular Aristotle's logic, through Greek Neoplatonist interpretations translated into Arabic via Syriac and possibly Persian. For example, he revised a general description of Aristotle's logic by the 6th century Paul the Persian, and further influenced famous later philosophers and theologians writing in Arabic in the 11th to 12th centuries: Avicenna, Al-Ghazali, Avempace and Averroes. Averroes' reports on Farabi were subsequently transmitted to the West in Latin translation. This book is an abridgement of Aristotle's Prior Analytics, rather than a commentary on successive passages. In it Farabi discusses Aristotle's invention, the syllogism, and aims to codify the deductively valid arguments in all disciplines. He describes Aristotle's categorical syllogisms in detail; these are syllogisms with premises such as Every A is a B' and No A is a B'. He adds a discussion
Table of ContentsPreface
Richard Sorabji Conventions Acknowledgements Introduction
Wilfrid Hodges 1. A Brief Guide to Categorical Syllogisms 2. Al-Farabi and his Writings 3. The Book
Syllogism Textual Emendations Translation Notes Bibliography English-Arabic-Greek Glossary Arabic-English Index Index of Passages from Aristotle Subject Index
