Prof. Cecilia Martini Bonadeo

University of Pisa

CV: click HERE.

“The Debated Question of al-Fārābī’s Authorship of Harmony of Plato and Aristotle. (Kitāb al-Ğam‘ bayna ra’yay al-Ḥakīmayn Aflāṭūn al-ilāhī wa Arisṭūṭālīs). A question of method. ” (video link forthcoming)

Abstract

In my paper I present the history of studies on the very debated question of the authorship of the Harmony of Plato and Aristotle (Kitāb al-Ğam‘ bayna ra’yay al-Ḥakīmayn Aflāṭūn al-ilāhī wa Arisṭūṭālīs). As well known, the authorship of this treatise, which the ancient sources credit al-Fārābī with, has been challenged several times on the base of its literary style and on its philosophical contents: cf. Lameer (1994), D’Ancona (2006), Rashed (2008) (2009), Janos (2009), Vallat (2011), Genequand (2012) (2013), Gleede (2012), Janos (2012). In particular, I critically discuss the hypothesis of an ‘evolution’ in al-Fārābī’s thought from a perspective of method and through the analysis of al-Fārābī’s many and different statements about the theory of vision in the Harmony, the Enumeration of the sciences (Iḥṣā’ al-‘Ulūm), the Political Regime (al-Siyāsa al-madaniyya), the Epistle on the Intellect (Risāla fī l-‘aql) and the Perfect State (Mabādi’ ārā’ ahl al-madīna al-fāḍila). 

Presentation Handout, click HERE.

Suggestion of Selected Readings for Workshop Preparation

Primary sources

Al-Fārābī, L’armonia delle opinioni dei due saggi Platone il divino e Aristotele, Pref. G. Endress, a cura di C. Martini Bonadeo, Plus. Pisa University Press, Pisa 2008 (Greco, Arabo, Latino. Le vie del sapere, 3).

Secondary Sources

D’Ancona (2006): C. D’Ancona, “The Topic of the ‘Harmony Between Plato and Aristotle’: Some Examples in Early Arabic Philosophy,” in Wissen über Grenzen, Arabisches Wissen und lateinisches Mittelalter, hrsg. von A. Speer u. L. Wegener, Miscellanea Mediaevalia 33, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin – New York 2006.

Genequand (2012): C. Genequand, “Théologie et philosophie. La providence chez al-Fārābī et l’authenticité de l’Harmonie des opinions des deux sages, in «Mélanges de l’université Saint-Joseph» 64 (2012), 195-211.

Janos (2012): D. Janos, Method, Structure, and Development in al-Fārābī’s Cosmology, Brill, Leiden Boston 2012, (Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science. Textes and Studies, 85).

Lameer (1994): J. Lameer, Alfarabi and Aristotelian Syllogistics: Greek theory and Islamic practice, Brill, Leiden 1994.

Rashed (2009): M. Rashed, “On the Authorship of the Treatise On the Harmonization of the Opinions of the Two Sages Attributed to al-Fārābī,” Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 19 (2009), 43-82.

Vallat (2004): P. Vallat, Farabi et l’école d’Alexandrie. Des prémisses de la connaissance à la philosophie politique, Vrin, Paris 2004.

Vallat (2011): P. Vallat, “Al-Farabi arguments for the Eternity of the World,” in Interpreting the Bible and Aristotle. The Alexandrian Commentary tradition between Rome and Baghdad, ed. by J. Löss and J. Watt, Ashgate, Farnham – Burlington 2011, 259-286.

Sources

Primary sources

Alexander of Aphrodisias

Alexander Aphrodiensis praeter commentaria scripta minora, De anima liber cum mantissa, edidit I. Bruns, Supplementum Aristotelicum, CAG II.1, Reimer, Berlin 1887.

Alessandro di Afrodisia, De Anima 2.: (Mantissa), premessa testo rivisto, traduzione e note di P. Accattino con la collaborazione di P. Chiggia, Edizioni dell’Orso, Alessandria 2005 (Classica philosophica et iuridica. Testi, 1).

‘A. Badawī, Commentaires sur Aristote, perdus en grec et autres épîtres, Dar el-Machreq Editeurs, Beyrouth 1971 (Recherches public sous la direction de l’Institut de Lettres Orientales de Beyrouth, A. Langue arabe et pensée islamique, nouvelle série, 1).

al-Bīrūnī

Abū Rayḥān Bīrūnī wa Ibn-i Sīnā, Al-As’ila wa-l-ağwiba, S. Ḥ. Naṣr e M. Moḥaqqiq, High Council of Culture and Art, Tehran 1974.

al-Fārābī

F. Dieterici, Alfārābī’s Philosophische Abhandlungen aus Londoner, Leidener und Berliner Handschriften, Brill, Leiden 1890 (ristampato in Publications of the Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science, ed. by F. Sezgin, XII, Frankfurt am Main 1999).

F. Dieterici, Alfarabi’s philosophische Abhandlungen aus dem Arabischen übersetzt, Brill, Leiden 1892 (ristampato in Publications of the Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science, ed. by F. Sezgin, XIII, Frankfurt am Main 1999).

R. al-‘Ağam, al-Manṭiq ‘inda l-Fārābī, I-III, Dār al-Mašriq, Bayrūt 1985-86.

M. T. Dāniš Pažūh, al-Manṭiqiyyāt li-l-Fārābī, I-III, Maktabat Āyatullāh al-uẓmā al-mar‘ašī al-nağafī, Qum 1987-89. 

al-Fārābī, Kitāb bārī armīniyās ay al-‘ibāra: v. Farabi’nin Peri Hermeneias Muḫtaṣari; Kitāb fī l-manṭiq. al-‘Ibāra; al-Manṭiq ‘inda al-Fārābī I, 133-63; al-Manṭiqiyyāt li-l-Fārābī I, 83-114.

M. Türker Küyel, Farabi’nin Peri Hermeneias Muḫtaṣari, «Araṣtirma» 4 (1966), 1-85 (ristampato Ankara 1990).

Abū Naṣr al-Fārābī, Kitāb fī l-manṭiq. al-‘Ibāra, ed. M. Salīm Sālīm, al-Hayʾah al-miṣrīyah al-ʿāmmah lil-kitāb, al-Qāhira 1976.

al-Fārābī, Šarḫ li-kitāb Arisṭūṭālīs fī l-‘ibāra: v. al-Manṭiqiyyāt li-l-Fārābī II, 1-259; Alfarabi’s Commentary on Aristotle’s Peri Hermēneias.

W. Kutsch-S. Marrow, Alfarabi’s Commentary on Aristotle’s Peri Hermēneias (De Interpretatione), Dār al-Mašriq, Bayrūt 1961, 19712.

F. W. Zimmermann, Al-Fārābī’s Commentary and Short Treatise on Aristotle’s De Interpretatione, Oxford University Press, London 1981.

al-Farabi, Catálogo de las ciencias, ed. González Palencia, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Patronato Menéndez y Pelayo – Instituto Miguel Asín, Madrid 1932, 19532.

al-Fārābī, Iḥṣā’ al-‘Ulūm, ed. ‘Ū. Amīn, al-Sa‘āda Press, al-Qāhira, 19683.

al-Fārābī, Kitāb al-ḥurūf (Book of Letters), Commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics, ed. M. Mahdi, Dār al-Mašriq, Bayrūt 1970.

F. Rosenthal - R. Walzer, Alfarabius De Platonis philosophia (Falsafat Aflāṭūn wa-ağzā’uhā wa-marātib ağzā’ihā min awwalihā ilā āḫirihā), in aedibus Instituti Warburgiani, London 1943 (ristampato Kraus, Nendeln-Liechtenstein 1973).

al-Fārābī, Philosophy of Aristotle (Falsafat Arisṭūṭālis wa-ağzā’ falsafatihī wa-marātib ağzā’ihā wa’l-mawḍi‘ allaḏī minhū ibtada’a wa-ilayhī intāhā), ed. M. Mahdi, Dār mağallat Ši‘r, Bayrūt 1961.

M. Mahdi, Alfarabi’s Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, The Free Press of Glencoe, Ithaca, New York 1962, 19692.

al-Fārābī, Kitāb al-ğam‘ bayna ra’yay al-ḥakīmayn Aflāṭūn al-ilāhī wa-Arisṭūṭālīs: v. Alfārābī’s Philosophische Abhandlungen, 1-33.

al-Fārābī, Die Harmonie zwischen Plato und Aristoteles, Alfarabi’s philosophische Abhandlungen aus dem Arabischen übersetzt, 1-53.

Alfarabi, The Harmonization of the Two Opinions of the Two Sages: Plato the Divine and Aristotle, in Alfarabi, The Political Writings. Selected Aphorisms and Other Texts, translated and annotated by Ch. Butterworth, Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London 2001, 116-67.

Al-Fārābī, L’armonia delle opinioni dei due saggi Platone il divino e Aristotele, Pref. G. Endress, a cura di C. Martini Bonadeo, Plus. Pisa University Press, Pisa 2008 (Greco, Arabo, Latino. Le vie del sapere, 3).

al-Fārābī, Risāla fī l-‘aql, éd. M. Bouyges, Imprimerie Catholique, Beyrouth 1938, 19832.

al-Fārābī, Epistola sull’intelletto, a cura di F. Lucchetta, Antenore, Padova 1974.

Abū Naṣr al-Fārābī, Mabādi’ ārā’ ahl al-madīna al-fāḍila, A revised text with introduction, translation and commentary by R. Walzer, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1985.

Philoponus

Philoponus, Against Aristotle, On the Eternity of the World, trans. by Ch. Wildberg, Cornell University Press, Ithaca (N.Y.) 1987.

Philoponus, On Aristotle’s Physics 5-8; with Simplicius, On Aristotle on the Void, trans. by P. Lettinck and J. O. Urmson, Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd, London 1994.

Galenus

Galeni Compendium Timaei Platonis aliorumque dialogorum synopsis qua extant fragmenta, ediderunt P. Kraus et R. Walzer, In aedibus Instituti Warburgiani, Londini 1951 (Corpus Platonicum medii aevi. Plato Arabus, 1).

Ibn al-Qifti

Ibn al-Qifṭī, Ta’rīḫ al-ḥukamā’, ed. J. Lippert, Dieterich’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Leipzig 1903.

Plato

Platonis Rempublicam recognovit brevique adnotatione critica instruxit I. Burnet, Tomus IV tetralogias VIII continens, Clarendon, Oxford 1902 (Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis).

Plotinus

F. Dieterici, Die sogenante Theologie des Aristoteles aus arabischen Handscriften zum ersten Mal herausgegeben, J. C. Hinrichs’sche Buchhandlung, Leipzig 1882 (ristampa Rodopi, Amsterdam 1965).

‘A. Badawī, Aflūṭīn ‘inda l-‘arab. Plotinus apud Arabes. Theologia Aristotelis et fragmenta quae supersunt, Dār al-nahḍat al-miṣriyya, al-Qāhira 1955, (Dirāsāt islāmiyya, 20).

P. Bettiolo - G. Catapano - C. D’Ancona - A. Donato - Ch. Guerra - C. Martini - C. Marzolo - A. Schiapparelli - M. Zambon, Plotino, La discesa dell’anima nei corpi (Enn. IV 8[6]). Plotiniana Arabica (Pseudo-Teologia di Aristotele, capitoli 1 e 7. “Detti del Sapiente Greco”), a cura di C. D’Ancona, Il Poligrafo, Padova 2003.

Suda

Suidae Lexicon, edidit A. Adler, Teubner, Lipsiae 1928-38 (Lexicographi graeci, 1).

al-Tawḥīdī

Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī, Al-Muqābasāt, ed. M. Tawfīq Ḥusayn, Maṭba‘āt al-Iršād, Baġdād 1970.

Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī, Kitāb al-Imtā‘ wa-l-mu’ānasa, ed. A. Amīn-A. al-Zayn, Lağnat al-ta’līf wa-l-tarğama wa-l-našr, al-Qāhira 19532.

Secondary Sources

D’Ancona (2006): C. D’Ancona, The Topic of the “Harmony Between Plato and Aristotle”: Some Examples in Early Arabic Philosophy, in Wissen über Grenzen, Arabisches Wissen und lateinisches Mittelalter, hrsg. von A. Speer u. L. Wegener, Miscellanea Mediaevalia 33, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin – New York 2006.

Druart (1987), Th.-A. Druart, Al-Fārābī and Emanationism, in Studies in Medieval Philosophy, ed. by J. F. Wippel, The Catholic University of America Press, Washington 1987, 23-43.

Eastwood (1979): B. Eastwood, Al-Farabi on Extramission, Intromission, and the Use of Platonic Visual Theory, «Isis» 70.3 (1979), 423-25.

Endress (1991): G. Endress, La “Concordance entre Platon et Aristote”, l’Aristote arabe et l’émancipation de la philosophie en Islam médiéval, in Historia Philosophiae Medii Aevi. Studien zur Geschichte der Philosophie des Mittelalters, hrsg. B. Mojsisch - O. Pluta, Grüner, Amsterdam - Philadelphia, 1991, 237-57.

Gätje (1971): H. Gätje, Studien zur Überlieferung der aristotelischen Psychologie im Islam, Winter, Heidelberg 1971.

Genequand (2012): C. Genequand, Théologie et philosophie. La providence chez al-Fārābī et l’authenticité de l’Harmonie des opinions des deux sages, in «Mélanges de l’université Saint-Joseph» 64 (2012), 195-211.

Gleede (2012): B. Gleede, Creatio ex nihilo – A Genuinely Philosophical Insight derived from Plato and Aristotle? Some Notes on the Treatise on the Harmony Between the Two Sages, «Arabic Sciences and Philosophy», 22 (2012), 91-117.

Hadot (1974): P. Hadot, L’harmonie des philosophies de Plotin et d’Aristote selon Porphyre dans le commentaire de Dexippe sur les Catégories, Atti del colloquio internazionale, Accademia de Lincei, Roma 1974, 31-47 (reprint in P. Hadot, Plotin, Porphyre. Etudes Néoplatoniciennes, Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1999, 335-82).

Janos (2009): D. Janos, Al-Farabi, creation ex nihilo, and the cosmological doctrine of K. Al-Jam’ and Jawabat, «Journal of the American Oriental Society» 129/1 (2009), 1-18.

Janos (2012): D. Janos, Method, Structure, and Development in al-Fārābī’s Cosmology, Brill, Leiden Boston 2012, (Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science. Textes and Studies, 85).

Klibansky (1939): R. Klibansky, The Continuity of the Platonic Tradition during the Middle Ages. Outlines of a corpus platonicum medii aevi, The Warburg Institute, London 1939.

Kraemer (1965): J. L. Kraemer, A Lost Passage From Philoponus’ Contra Aristotelem in Arabic Translation (Simpl. De Caelo I, 3, 270b5-11),  «Journal of the American Oriental Society» 85 (1965), 318-27.

Lameer (1994): J. Lameer, Alfarabi and Aristotelian Syllogistics: Greek theory and Islamic practice, Brill, Leiden 1994.

Lindberg (1976): D. C. Lindberg, Theories of Vision from al-Kindi to Kepler, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1976.

Lindberg (1978): D. C. Lindberg, The Intromission – Extramission Controversy in Islamic Visual Theory: Alkindi versus Avicenna, in Studies in Perception, ed. by P. K. Machamer and R.G. Turnbull, Ohio State U. P., Columbus 1978, 137-159.

McGinnis – Reisman (2007): J. McGinnis – D. Reisman, Classical arabic Philosophy. An Anthology of Sources, Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., Indianapolis Cambridege 2007.

Mahdi (1967): M. Mahdi, Alfarabi against Philoponus, «Journal of Near Eastern Studies»  26 (1967), 233-60.

Mahdi (1972): M. Mahdi, The Arabic Text of Alfarabi’s Against John the Grammarian, in Medieval and Middle Eastern Studies in Honor of  Aziz Suryal Atiya, ed. by S. A. Hanna, Brill, Leiden 1972, 268-84.

Martini Bonadeo (2013): C. Martini Bonadeo, L’ottica nel dibattito medievale tra filosofi, medici e astronomi. Il contributo di Abū Naṣr al-Fārābī, in Coexistence and cooperation in the middle ages. IV European Congress of Medieval Studies F.I.D.E.M. (Federation Internationale des Instituts d’Études Medievales), Palermo 23-27 june 2009, a cura di A. Musco - G. Musetto, Officina di Studi Medievali, Palermo 2013, 59-79.

Martini Bonadeo (2013): C. Martini Bonadeo, Review to D. Janos, Method, Structure, and Development in al-Fārābī’s Cosmology, Brill, Leiden Boston 2012, (Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science. Textes and Studies, 85), xi-433, «Studia graeco-arabica» 4 (2014) 357-364.

Rashed (2008): M. Rashed, Al-Fārābī’s Lost Treatise On Changing Beings and the Possibility of a Demonstration of the Eternity of the World, «Arabic Sciences and Philosophy», 18 (2008), 19-58.

Rashed (2009): M. Rashed, On the Authorship of the Treatise On the Harmonization of the Opinions of the Two Sages Attributed to al-Fārābī, «Arabic Sciences and Philosophy», 19 (2009), 43-82.

Rosenthal (1940): F. Rosenthal, On the Knowledge of  Plato’s Philosophy in the Islamic World, «Islamic Culture» 14 (1940), 387-422.

Steinschneider (1869): M. Steinschneider, Al-Farabi (Alpharabius) des arabischen Philosophen Leben und Schriften mit besonderer Rücksicht auf die Geschichte der griechischen Wissenschaft unter den Arabern, nebst Anhängen Joh. Philoponus bei den Arabern; Leben und Testament des Aristoteles von Ptolemaeus, Darstellung der Philosophie Plato’s, Grösstentheils nach Handschriftlichen Quellen, St. Petersbourg 1969 (Mémoires de l’Académie Impériale des Sciences de St. Petersbourg, VIIIe série, tome XIII, 4; rist. Philo Press, Amsterdam 1966).

Vallat (2004): P. Vallat, Farabi et l’école d’Alexandrie. Des prémisses de la connaissance à la philosophie politique, Vrin, Paris 2004.

Vallat (2011): P. Vallat, Al-Farabi arguments for the Eternity of the World, in Interpreting the Bible and Aristotle. The Alexandrian Commentary tradition between Rome and Baghdad, ed. by J. Löss and J. Watt, Ashgate, Farnham – Burlington 2011, 259-286.

Walzer (1957): R. Walzer, Al-Farābi’s Theory of Prophecy and Divination,  «Journal  of Hellenic Studies» 77 (1957), 142-48 (ristampato in Greek into Arabic,  206-19).

Walzer (1965): R. Walzer, Porphyry and the Arabic Tradition, in Porphyre, Entretiens Hardt XII, Vandœuvres – Genève 1965, 275-99.