Al-Farabi’s eighty fallacy extra dictionem and averroes' criticism

Lamprakis, Alexander (1. October 2024): Al-Farabi’s eighty fallacy extra dictionem and averroes' criticism. In: Arabic Sciences and Philosophy, Vol. 34, No. 2: pp. 233-274

Abstract

This paper aims to introduce and discuss al-Fārābī's (d. 950–1 CE) fallacy from transfer and substitution in his little-studied “On Deceptive Topoi” (Kitāb al-amkina al-muġalliṭa) and the criticism leveled at him by Averroes (d. 1198 CE) for violating Aristotle's claim of the exhaustiveness of his list of fallacies. The first and larger half of this paper introduces al-Fārābī's treatise and its innovations upon Aristotle's Sophistici elenchi. The second half focuses on Averroes’ criticism in his so-called middle commentary (talḫīṣ) on Aristotle's SE and discusses the validity of his arguments against al-Fārābī. As the final analysis will show, Averroes’ criticism does not sufficiently take into account the independence of al-Fārābī's treatise from Aristotle's SE, its disregard for the study of dialectical deception and counter-deception, and its particular focus on the demonstrative sciences. In light of al-Fārābī's innovation his “On Deceptive Topoi” turns out to be a work of great originality drawing on a broad range of source texts.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Religious Science > Chair of Philosophy VI
• Subjects: 100 Philosophy and Psychology > 100 Philosophy
• ISSN: 0957-4239
• Language: English