Weeds: Cultivating the imagination in medieval arabic political philosophy

Journal of the History of Ideas

Volumn 60, Issue 3, 1999, Pages 399-416

  Kochin, Michael S ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0042208735     PISSN: 00225037     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3654010     Document Type: Article

References (116)

1. Apology 21ff, cf. Symposium 220d.
2. Apology 21ff, cf. Symposium 220d.
3. On the religio-political significance of the twelve-month cycle see Pierre Lévêque and Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Cleisthenes the Athenian, tr. David Ames Curtis (Atlantic Highlands, N.J., 1996), 67, 96-97.
4. Such a resolution though periodization flies in the face of numerous passages in both the "early" and the "later" dialogues. In the Gorgias Socrates claims to be the only true politician in Athens - the city as a whole is disordered, filled up with the toxins of excess, but Socrates the political physician claims to be able to diagnose the disease and propose, if not impose, the remedy (518b ff., 521d). In the Laws, on the other hand, the Athenian Stranger recognizes that the best human beings do not necessarily grow up in the best-governed city (951bc), thereby admitting that the standard for political order does not simply transcend and realize the standard for order within the individual but can contradict and subvert it.
5. Republic 520a-c; all translations from the Greek are my own.
6. See, e.g., Charmides 153d.
7. Republic 488.
8. Alfarabi, Political Regime, N104-107; selections tr. Fauzi M. Najjar, in Medieval Political Philosophy: A Sourcebook, ed. Ralph Lerner and Muhsin Mahdi (Ithaca, N.Y., 1972), 53-56. Whereas Plato uses the image of the sun to describe the relation of the idea of the good to the other intelligibles, Alfarabi uses this image and Plato's language to describe the relation of the Active Intellect to the other intelligibles (Republic 508a ff., Political Regime N35-36). All translations from The Political Regime are drawn from Fauzi Najjar's published and Miriam Galston's unpublished partial translations (University of Maryland, Department of Government and Politics, photocopy); but I have also consulted Shukhri Abed's complete Hebrew translation (Tel Aviv, 1992). References to the Political Regime are to Najjar's Arabic edition, Al-Siyāsāt al-madaniyyah (Beirut: Matba'ah al-kāthūlīkiyyah, 1964), as used by Galston and Abed (preceded by N), and to Medieval Political Philosophy, when the passage is translated by Najjar.
9. Alfarabi, Political Regime, N104-107; selections tr. Fauzi M. Najjar, in Medieval Political Philosophy: A Sourcebook, ed. Ralph Lerner and Muhsin Mahdi (Ithaca, N.Y., 1972), 53-56. Whereas Plato uses the image of the sun to describe the relation of the idea of the good to the other intelligibles, Alfarabi uses this image and Plato's language to describe the relation of the Active Intellect to the other intelligibles (Republic 508a ff., Political Regime N35-36). All translations from The Political Regime are drawn from Fauzi Najjar's published and Miriam Galston's unpublished partial translations (University of Maryland, Department of Government and Politics, photocopy); but I have also consulted Shukhri Abed's complete Hebrew translation (Tel Aviv, 1992). References to the Political Regime are to Najjar's Arabic edition, Al-Siyāsāt al-madaniyyah (Beirut: Matba'ah al-kāthūlīkiyyah, 1964), as used by Galston and Abed (preceded by N), and to Medieval Political Philosophy, when the passage is translated by Najjar.
10. Alfarabi, Political Regime, N104-107; selections tr. Fauzi M. Najjar, in Medieval Political Philosophy: A Sourcebook, ed. Ralph Lerner and Muhsin Mahdi (Ithaca, N.Y., 1972), 53-56. Whereas Plato uses the image of the sun to describe the relation of the idea of the good to the other intelligibles, Alfarabi uses this image and Plato's language to describe the relation of the Active Intellect to the other intelligibles (Republic 508a ff., Political Regime N35-36). All translations from The Political Regime are drawn from Fauzi Najjar's published and Miriam Galston's unpublished partial translations (University of Maryland, Department of Government and Politics, photocopy); but I have also consulted Shukhri Abed's complete Hebrew translation (Tel Aviv, 1992). References to the Political Regime are to Najjar's Arabic edition, Al-Siyāsāt al-madaniyyah (Beirut: Matba'ah al-kāthūlīkiyyah, 1964), as used by Galston and Abed (preceded by N), and to Medieval Political Philosophy, when the passage is translated by Najjar.
11. Alfarabi, Political Regime, N104-107; selections tr. Fauzi M. Najjar, in Medieval Political Philosophy: A Sourcebook, ed. Ralph Lerner and Muhsin Mahdi (Ithaca, N.Y., 1972), 53-56. Whereas Plato uses the image of the sun to describe the relation of the idea of the good to the other intelligibles, Alfarabi uses this image and Plato's language to describe the relation of the Active Intellect to the other intelligibles (Republic 508a ff., Political Regime N35-36). All translations from The Political Regime are drawn from Fauzi Najjar's published and Miriam Galston's unpublished partial translations (University of Maryland, Department of Government and Politics, photocopy); but I have also consulted Shukhri Abed's complete Hebrew translation (Tel Aviv, 1992). References to the Political Regime are to Najjar's Arabic edition, Al-Siyāsāt al-madaniyyah (Beirut: Matba'ah al-kāthūlīkiyyah, 1964), as used by Galston and Abed (preceded by N), and to Medieval Political Philosophy, when the passage is translated by Najjar.
12. Alfarabi, Political Regime, N104-107; selections tr. Fauzi M. Najjar, in Medieval Political Philosophy: A Sourcebook, ed. Ralph Lerner and Muhsin Mahdi (Ithaca, N.Y., 1972), 53-56. Whereas Plato uses the image of the sun to describe the relation of the idea of the good to the other intelligibles, Alfarabi uses this image and Plato's language to describe the relation of the Active Intellect to the other intelligibles (Republic 508a ff., Political Regime N35-36). All translations from The Political Regime are drawn from Fauzi Najjar's published and Miriam Galston's unpublished partial translations (University of Maryland, Department of Government and Politics, photocopy); but I have also consulted Shukhri Abed's complete Hebrew translation (Tel Aviv, 1992). References to the Political Regime are to Najjar's Arabic edition, Al-Siyāsāt al-madaniyyah (Beirut: Matba'ah al-kāthūlīkiyyah, 1964), as used by Galston and Abed (preceded by N), and to Medieval Political Philosophy, when the passage is translated by Najjar.
13. Alfarabi, Political Regime, N104-107; selections tr. Fauzi M. Najjar, in Medieval Political Philosophy: A Sourcebook, ed. Ralph Lerner and Muhsin Mahdi (Ithaca, N.Y., 1972), 53-56. Whereas Plato uses the image of the sun to describe the relation of the idea of the good to the other intelligibles, Alfarabi uses this image and Plato's language to describe the relation of the Active Intellect to the other intelligibles (Republic 508a ff., Political Regime N35-36). All translations from The Political Regime are drawn from Fauzi Najjar's published and Miriam Galston's unpublished partial translations (University of Maryland, Department of Government and Politics, photocopy); but I have also consulted Shukhri Abed's complete Hebrew translation (Tel Aviv, 1992). References to the Political Regime are to Najjar's Arabic edition, Al-Siyāsāt al-madaniyyah (Beirut: Matba'ah al-kāthūlīkiyyah, 1964), as used by Galston and Abed (preceded by N), and to Medieval Political Philosophy, when the passage is translated by Najjar.
14. On the historical background of the term "weeds" (in Arabic, al-nawābit), see Ilai Alon, "Fārābī's Funny Flora: Al-nawābit as 'Opposition,' "Arabica, 37 (1990), 56-90. Alon notes that while the term emerges in ninth-century disputes over the Caliphate, Alfarabi gives it the novel general meaning of "oppositionists," those who oppose the rulers and their doctrines, without regard for the specific doctrine opposed.
15. Governance of the Solitary, tr. Lawrence Berman, in Medieval Political Philosophy, 127. References to The Governance of the Solitary given by page number.
16. Governance of the Solitary, tr. Lawrence Berman, in Medieval Political Philosophy, 127. References to The Governance of the Solitary given by page number.
17. Political Regime N69; Medieval Political Philosophy, 32.
18. Enumeration of the Sciences, tr. Fauzi M. Najjar, in Medieval Political Philosophy, 24.
19. Attainment of Happiness, in The Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, tr. Muhsin Mahdi (rev. ed., Ithaca, N.Y., 1969), sec. 45.
20. This statement of the relation between political science and philosophy is based on Alfarabi's accounts of political science in the Political Regime, the Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, and the Opinions of the Citizens of the Virtuous City, ed. and tr. Richard Walzer as Alfarabi's Perfect State (Oxford, 1985). As Miriam Galston has shown in Politics and Excellence: The Political Philosophy of Alfarabi (Princeton, 1990), the relation of political science to philosophy (and thus of political practice to philosophic inquiry) appears in a very different light in Alfarabi's Selected Aphorisms; see Aphorisms of the Statesman, ed. and tr. D. M. Dunlop (Cambridge, 1962), aphorism 4; Politics and Excellence, 123-24, 188.
21. This statement of the relation between political science and philosophy is based on Alfarabi's accounts of political science in the Political Regime, the Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, and the Opinions of the Citizens of the Virtuous City, ed. and tr. Richard Walzer as Alfarabi's Perfect State (Oxford, 1985). As Miriam Galston has shown in Politics and Excellence: The Political Philosophy of Alfarabi (Princeton, 1990), the relation of political science to philosophy (and thus of political practice to philosophic inquiry) appears in a very different light in Alfarabi's Selected Aphorisms; see Aphorisms of the Statesman, ed. and tr. D. M. Dunlop (Cambridge, 1962), aphorism 4; Politics and Excellence, 123-24, 188.
22. This statement of the relation between political science and philosophy is based on Alfarabi's accounts of political science in the Political Regime, the Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, and the Opinions of the Citizens of the Virtuous City, ed. and tr. Richard Walzer as Alfarabi's Perfect State (Oxford, 1985). As Miriam Galston has shown in Politics and Excellence: The Political Philosophy of Alfarabi (Princeton, 1990), the relation of political science to philosophy (and thus of political practice to philosophic inquiry) appears in a very different light in Alfarabi's Selected Aphorisms; see Aphorisms of the Statesman, ed. and tr. D. M. Dunlop (Cambridge, 1962), aphorism 4; Politics and Excellence, 123-24, 188.
23. This statement of the relation between political science and philosophy is based on Alfarabi's accounts of political science in the Political Regime, the Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, and the Opinions of the Citizens of the Virtuous City, ed. and tr. Richard Walzer as Alfarabi's Perfect State (Oxford, 1985). As Miriam Galston has shown in Politics and Excellence: The Political Philosophy of Alfarabi (Princeton, 1990), the relation of political science to philosophy (and thus of political practice to philosophic inquiry) appears in a very different light in Alfarabi's Selected Aphorisms; see Aphorisms of the Statesman, ed. and tr. D. M. Dunlop (Cambridge, 1962), aphorism 4; Politics and Excellence, 123-24, 188.
24. This statement of the relation between political science and philosophy is based on Alfarabi's accounts of political science in the Political Regime, the Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, and the Opinions of the Citizens of the Virtuous City, ed. and tr. Richard Walzer as Alfarabi's Perfect State (Oxford, 1985). As Miriam Galston has shown in Politics and Excellence: The Political Philosophy of Alfarabi (Princeton, 1990), the relation of political science to philosophy (and thus of political practice to philosophic inquiry) appears in a very different light in Alfarabi's Selected Aphorisms; see Aphorisms of the Statesman, ed. and tr. D. M. Dunlop (Cambridge, 1962), aphorism 4; Politics and Excellence, 123-24, 188.
25. This statement of the relation between political science and philosophy is based on Alfarabi's accounts of political science in the Political Regime, the Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, and the Opinions of the Citizens of the Virtuous City, ed. and tr. Richard Walzer as Alfarabi's Perfect State (Oxford, 1985). As Miriam Galston has shown in Politics and Excellence: The Political Philosophy of Alfarabi (Princeton, 1990), the relation of political science to philosophy (and thus of political practice to philosophic inquiry) appears in a very different light in Alfarabi's Selected Aphorisms; see Aphorisms of the Statesman, ed. and tr. D. M. Dunlop (Cambridge, 1962), aphorism 4; Politics and Excellence, 123-24, 188.
26. This statement of the relation between political science and philosophy is based on Alfarabi's accounts of political science in the Political Regime, the Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, and the Opinions of the Citizens of the Virtuous City, ed. and tr. Richard Walzer as Alfarabi's Perfect State (Oxford, 1985). As Miriam Galston has shown in Politics and Excellence: The Political Philosophy of Alfarabi (Princeton, 1990), the relation of political science to philosophy (and thus of political practice to philosophic inquiry) appears in a very different light in Alfarabi's Selected Aphorisms; see Aphorisms of the Statesman, ed. and tr. D. M. Dunlop (Cambridge, 1962), aphorism 4; Politics and Excellence, 123-24, 188.
27. Attainment, sec. 56.
28. Attainment, sec. 34; cf. Book of Religion, tr. Charles Butterworth (Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland, photocopy), sec. 5; Book of Letters, tr. Muhsin Mahdi (Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, photocopy), sees. 144, 147.
29. Attainment, sec. 34; cf. Book of Religion, tr. Charles Butterworth (Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland, photocopy), sec. 5; Book of Letters, tr. Muhsin Mahdi (Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, photocopy), sees. 144, 147.
30. Attainment, sec. 34; cf. Book of Religion, tr. Charles Butterworth (Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland, photocopy), sec. 5; Book of Letters, tr. Muhsin Mahdi (Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, photocopy), sees. 144, 147.
31. Attainment, sec. 54.
32. Attainment, sec. 55.
33. Political Regime N85; Medieval Political Philosophy, 40; cf. Virtuous City chap. 14 sec. 4.
34. Political Regime N85; Medieval Political Philosophy, 40; cf. Virtuous City chap. 14 sec. 4.
35. Attainment, sec. 59, cf. Book of Religion sec. 2, Book of Letters sees. 108-10.
36. Attainment, sec. 59, cf. Book of Religion sec. 2, Book of Letters sees. 108-10.
37. Attainment, sec. 59, cf. Book of Religion sec. 2, Book of Letters sees. 108-10.
38. Attainment, sec. 59.
39. Political Regime N81; Medieval Political Philosophy, 37.
40. Virtuous City ch. 17, sec. 2.
41. See Alfarabi, The Harmonization of the Opinions of the Two Sages: Plato and Aristotle, tr. Charles Butterworth (University of Maryland, Department of Government and Politics, photocopy), sec. 61, where one who believes that "the first creator" is corporeal will only become perplexed if "compelled to conceive" that the Creator is incorporeal or acts without motion. In consequence, Alfarabi hints, the multitude is taught that a corporeal Creator created a corporeal universe out of preexisting matter (sec. 62). The truer doctrine of God's incorporeality is reserved for those who will recognize its greater accuracy. Maimonides famously contradicts this particular segregation of images, in principle in the Guide, and in practice in the Code (Guide of the Perplexed, I, 35; "Laws of the Foundations of the Torah," ch. i-ii). Cf. also Averroes, Decisive Treatise in Averroes on the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy, ed. and tr. George Hourani (London, 1967), 13ff; Shem Tob ad Guide I:35; Shlomo Pines, "Translator's Introduction," in Moses Maimonides, The Guide of the Perplexed (Chicago, 1963), cxix.
42. See Alfarabi, The Harmonization of the Opinions of the Two Sages: Plato and Aristotle, tr. Charles Butterworth (University of Maryland, Department of Government and Politics, photocopy), sec. 61, where one who believes that "the first creator" is corporeal will only become perplexed if "compelled to conceive" that the Creator is incorporeal or acts without motion. In consequence, Alfarabi hints, the multitude is taught that a corporeal Creator created a corporeal universe out of preexisting matter (sec. 62). The truer doctrine of God's incorporeality is reserved for those who will recognize its greater accuracy. Maimonides famously contradicts this particular segregation of images, in principle in the Guide, and in practice in the Code (Guide of the Perplexed, I, 35; "Laws of the Foundations of the Torah," ch. i-ii). Cf. also Averroes, Decisive Treatise in Averroes on the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy, ed. and tr. George Hourani (London, 1967), 13ff; Shem Tob ad Guide I:35; Shlomo Pines, "Translator's Introduction," in Moses Maimonides, The Guide of the Perplexed (Chicago, 1963), cxix.
43. See Alfarabi, The Harmonization of the Opinions of the Two Sages: Plato and Aristotle, tr. Charles Butterworth (University of Maryland, Department of Government and Politics, photocopy), sec. 61, where one who believes that "the first creator" is corporeal will only become perplexed if "compelled to conceive" that the Creator is incorporeal or acts without motion. In consequence, Alfarabi hints, the multitude is taught that a corporeal Creator created a corporeal universe out of preexisting matter (sec. 62). The truer doctrine of God's incorporeality is reserved for those who will recognize its greater accuracy. Maimonides famously contradicts this particular segregation of images, in principle in the Guide, and in practice in the Code (Guide of the Perplexed, I, 35; "Laws of the Foundations of the Torah," ch. i-ii). Cf. also Averroes, Decisive Treatise in Averroes on the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy, ed. and tr. George Hourani (London, 1967), 13ff; Shem Tob ad Guide I:35; Shlomo Pines, "Translator's Introduction," in Moses Maimonides, The Guide of the Perplexed (Chicago, 1963), cxix.
44. See Alfarabi, The Harmonization of the Opinions of the Two Sages: Plato and Aristotle, tr. Charles Butterworth (University of Maryland, Department of Government and Politics, photocopy), sec. 61, where one who believes that "the first creator" is corporeal will only become perplexed if "compelled to conceive" that the Creator is incorporeal or acts without motion. In consequence, Alfarabi hints, the multitude is taught that a corporeal Creator created a corporeal universe out of preexisting matter (sec. 62). The truer doctrine of God's incorporeality is reserved for those who will recognize its greater accuracy. Maimonides famously contradicts this particular segregation of images, in principle in the Guide, and in practice in the Code (Guide of the Perplexed, I, 35; "Laws of the Foundations of the Torah," ch. i-ii). Cf. also Averroes, Decisive Treatise in Averroes on the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy, ed. and tr. George Hourani (London, 1967), 13ff; Shem Tob ad Guide I:35; Shlomo Pines, "Translator's Introduction," in Moses Maimonides, The Guide of the Perplexed (Chicago, 1963), cxix.
45. See Alfarabi, The Harmonization of the Opinions of the Two Sages: Plato and Aristotle, tr. Charles Butterworth (University of Maryland, Department of Government and Politics, photocopy), sec. 61, where one who believes that "the first creator" is corporeal will only become perplexed if "compelled to conceive" that the Creator is incorporeal or acts without motion. In consequence, Alfarabi hints, the multitude is taught that a corporeal Creator created a corporeal universe out of preexisting matter (sec. 62). The truer doctrine of God's incorporeality is reserved for those who will recognize its greater accuracy. Maimonides famously contradicts this particular segregation of images, in principle in the Guide, and in practice in the Code (Guide of the Perplexed, I, 35; "Laws of the Foundations of the Torah," ch. i-ii). Cf. also Averroes, Decisive Treatise in Averroes on the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy, ed. and tr. George Hourani (London, 1967), 13ff; Shem Tob ad Guide I:35; Shlomo Pines, "Translator's Introduction," in Moses Maimonides, The Guide of the Perplexed (Chicago, 1963), cxix.
46. Attainment, sec. 59.
47. Political Regime N85-86; Medieval Political Philosophy, 41; and see Joshua Parens, "Multiculturalism and the Problem of Particularism," American Political Science Review, 88 (1994), 163-81.
48. Political Regime N85-86; Medieval Political Philosophy, 41; and see Joshua Parens, "Multiculturalism and the Problem of Particularism," American Political Science Review, 88 (1994), 163-81.
49. Plato, Republic 486d.
50. Cf. Book of Letters, sec. 149.
51. Political Regime N105; Medieval Political Philosophy, 54.
52. Political Regime N105; Medieval Political Philosophy, 55.
53. Political Regime N105; Medieval Political Philosophy, 54.
54. Virtuous City, ch. 17, sec. 4.
55. In The Opinion of the Citizens of the Virtuous City Alfarabi does not use the term weeds (al-nawdbit). Instead, as we have already cited, he speaks of those who reject the images of the city as false. Like the weeds of the Political Regime, these "rejecters" are a group among the citizens of the virtuous or excellent city.
56. Book of Religion, sec. 14a.
57. Cf. Political Regime N80, N101; Medieval Political Philosophy, 37, 51.
58. Cf. Political Regime N80, N101; Medieval Political Philosophy, 37, 51.
59. Political Regime N106; Medieval Political Philosophy, 55.
60. Political Regime N106; Medieval Political Philosophy, 55.
61. Attainment, sees. 59, 61; cf. Political Regime N77.
62. Attainment, sees. 59, 61; cf. Political Regime N77.
63. Compare Book of Letters sec. 149, where Alfarabi states that if neither the adherents of philosophy nor those of a religion recognize that religion depends on philosophy, "the adherents of philosophy will also oppose this religion so long as they do not know that this religion consists of paradigms of what is in philosophy." Alfarabi goes on to state that the adherents of philosophy must defend themselves before the adherents of religion "by seeking to make them discern that the contents of their religion are paradigms of the contents of philosophy." The philosopher must therefore interpret the law philosophically both to the weed and to the "cultivated" multitude.
64. Cf. Philosophy of Plato, sec. 36.
65. Philosophy of Plato, sec. 30.
66. Governance of the Solitary, 132.
67. Ibid., 127.
68. Weeds or spontaneous growths are mentioned in Ibn Bajjah's botanical treatise; see "Avempace Botánico," ed. and Spanish tr. Miguel Aśn Palacios, Al Andalus, 5 (1940), 255-99. The brief discussion (p. 288) does not appear relevant to his political philosophy.
69. Ibid., 127.
70. Ibid., 126.
71. Ibid.
72. Ibid., 127.
73. Ibid.
74. Ibid., 124.
75. Ibid., 132.
76. Ibid., 130.
77. Virtuous City, ch. 19, secs. 2-4, 7.
78. Ibn Tufayl, Hayy ibn Yaqzan, tr. George N. Atiyeh, in Medieval Political Philosophy, 10. Translations of Hayy are taken from Atiyeh's partial translation in Medieval Political Philosophy or Lenn Goodman's translation (New York, 1972) for portions untranslated by Atiyeh. References to Hayy are given using the standard page numbers of Léon Gauthier's Arabic text (Beirut, 1936).
79. Ibn Tufayl, Hayy ibn Yaqzan, tr. George N. Atiyeh, in Medieval Political Philosophy, 10. Translations of Hayy are taken from Atiyeh's partial translation in Medieval Political Philosophy or Lenn Goodman's translation (New York, 1972) for portions untranslated by Atiyeh. References to Hayy are given using the standard page numbers of Léon Gauthier's Arabic text (Beirut, 1936).
80. Ibn Tufayl, Hayy ibn Yaqzan, tr. George N. Atiyeh, in Medieval Political Philosophy, 10. Translations of Hayy are taken from Atiyeh's partial translation in Medieval Political Philosophy or Lenn Goodman's translation (New York, 1972) for portions untranslated by Atiyeh. References to Hayy are given using the standard page numbers of Léon Gauthier's Arabic text (Beirut, 1936).
81. Ibid., 12.
82. Or Absāl, in some manuscripts, and in the recital of Avicenna from which Ibn Tufayl claims to take his characters' names (Hayy 20); cf. Henry Corbin, Avicenna and the Visionary Recital, tr. Willard R. Trask (New York, 1960).
83. Or Absāl, in some manuscripts, and in the recital of Avicenna from which Ibn Tufayl claims to take his characters' names (Hayy 20); cf. Henry Corbin, Avicenna and the Visionary Recital, tr. Willard R. Trask (New York, 1960).
84. Hayy, 3-4.
85. Hillel Fradkin, "The Political Thought of Ibn Tufayl," in The Political Aspects of Islamic Philosophy: Essays in Honor of Muhsin H. Mahdi, ed. Charles E. Butterworth (Cambridge, Mass., 1992).
86. Hayy, 26-30.
87. Plato, Republic 414de.
88. Though Ibn Tufayl does in the end contradict the story of Hayy's spontaneous generation (Hayy, 34); see Fradkin, "Political Thought of Ibn Tufayl."
89. Though Ibn Tufayl does in the end contradict the story of Hayy's spontaneous generation (Hayy, 34); see Fradkin, "Political Thought of Ibn Tufayl."
90. Hayy, 50.
91. Hayy, 106-7.
92. Since Hayy cannot fit himself in to the order of the beings, he knows of nothing that is fit for him to eat (110-12).
93. Ibid., 109.
94. Ibid., 127-31.
95. Ibid., 132.
96. Ibid., 136-37.
97. Ibid., 137-38.
98. Ibid., 140, 142.
99. Cf. Ibid., 35-36.
100. Ibid., 143-44. The translation of these passages has been slightly modified from that of Atiyeh with the help of Michael Marmura; on the importance of distinguishing this "conjunction" or ittisal from the "union" with the divine see Hayy 4, 123-24.
101. Ibid., 10.
102. Ibid., 144.
103. Ibid., 147.
104. Ibid., 146, 147.
105. Ibid., 146.
106. Ibid., 147.
107. Ibid., 148-49.
108. Ibid., 149-50.
109. Ibid., 150.
110. Ibid., 150-54.
111. Ibid., 153-54.
112. Ibid., 4.
113. Ibid., 143.
114. Book of Letters, sees. 149-53.
115. Governance of the Solitary, 132.
116. This paper was delivered as part of a panel entitled "Farabi as Founder" at the 1997 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association. I would like to thank Charles Butterworth, Christopher Colmo, Joseph Macfarland, and members of the audience; also Muhsin Mahdi, Joshua Parens, Donald Forbes, Ralph Lerner, Michael Marmura, Donald Smith, Natalie Oeltjen, and Lenn E. Goodman. Research was supported by a Claude R. Lambe Fellowship from the Institute for Humane Studies, a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship, and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship.