Majid Fakhry is Emeritus Professor at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, and Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University, Washington, DC. He has also taught philosphy in Lebanon and the UK, and his publications include Averroes: His Life, Works and Influence.

Preface

Introduction

1 LIFE AND WORKS

2 AL-F¿R¿BI AND THE GREEK LEGACY

The genesis of philosophy

Philosophy and religion

Presocratics, stoics and peripatetics

Plato and his philosophy

The philosophy of Aristotle

The harmony of Plato and Aristotle

3 THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE SCIENCES

The interrelation of the sciences

Logic and mathematics

Physics and metaphysics

Ethics and politics

The Islamic sciences

4 AL-F¿R¿BI AS LOGICIAN

The logical corpus

The analysis of logical terms

The demonstrative art

Rhetoric and poetics

5 THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE

The nature of scientific knowledge

The various senses of the term 'intellect' ('aql)

The Active Intellect

6 EMANATION VERSUS CREATION

The Neoplatonic legacy

The nature of the First Being or the One

The intellect, as the first emanation

The heavenly bodies

The material world

The human soul and its faculties

Prophecy and the imaginative faculty

7 ETHICAL THEORY

The attainment of happiness

The moral virtues and their acquisition

Evil and not-being

Justice and friendship

8 POLITICAL THEORY

The principles of political association

The master organ and the master ruler (ra'¿s)

The qualification of the chief ruler (ra'¿s)

The virtuous city

The non-virtuous cities

The outgrowths (naw¿bit) as a hybrid class

Lawlessness and discord

Political justice and religious piety

The fate of the soul after death

9 AL-F¿R¿BI AND MUSIC

10 AL-F¿R¿BI IN HISTORY

The triumph of Neoplatonism

Al-F¿r¿bi's philosophical legacy

Al-Ghaz¿li's onslaught on Al-F¿r¿bi and Ibn S¿na

Ibn B¿jjah and the Andalusian interlude

Ibn Rushd (Averroes)

Neoplatonism and Sufism

Al-F¿r¿bi and the West

Conclusion

Appendix

Bibliography

Index