Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T01:39:17.355Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Theory and Practice: Alfarabi's Plato Revisited

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Christopher Colmo
Christopher Colmo
Affiliation:
Rosary College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

According to Leo Strauss, knowledge of the best way of life is crucial to political philosophy. In “Farabi's Plato,” Strauss asks, assuming that the theoretical life can be known to be the best way of life, what is the status of this knowledge? Is the knowledge of the best way of life itself theoretical knowledge or practical knowledge? Without a coherent answer to this question, we cannot be certain that we know what we mean when we claim to know that philosophy is the best way of life. Strauss answers clearly the question about the status of the knowledge of the best way of life by affirming that it is practical, not theoretical, knowledge. For a variety of reasons, this answer is not persuasive in the form in which Strauss gives it.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 86 , Issue 4 , December 1992 , pp. 966 - 976
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alfarabi, . 1969. Alfarabi's Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. Trans. Mahdi, Muhsin. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Berman, Lawrence V. 1974. “Maimonides, the disciple of Alfarabi.” Israel Oriental Studies 4:154–78.Google Scholar
Colmo, Christopher A. 1990. “Reason and Revelation in the Thought of Leo Strauss.” Interpretation 18(1):145–60.Google Scholar
Galston, Miriam. 1990. Politics and Excellence: The Political Philosophy of Alfarabi. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Mahdi, Muhsin. 1973. “Alfarabi on Philosophy and Religion.” Philosophic Forum 4:5–25.Google Scholar
Mahdi, Muhsin. 1975. “Science, Philosophy, and Religion in Alfarabi's Enumeration of the Sciences.” In The Cultural Context of Medieval Learning, ed. Murdoch, John Emery and Sylla, Edith Dudley. Boston: Reidel.Google Scholar
Mahdi, Muhsin. 1981. “Alfarabi and the Foundation of Islamic Philosophy.” In Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism, ed. Morewedge, Parviz. Delmar, NY: Caravan Books.Google Scholar
Meier, Heinrich. 1988a. Carl Schmitt, Leo Strauss, und “Der Begrijf des Politischen”: Zu einem Dialog unter Abwesenden. Stuttgart: Metzlersche.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meier, Heinrich. 1988b. “Leo Strauss.” In Metzler Philosophen Lexikon, ed. Lutz, Bernd. Stuttgart: Metzlersche.Google Scholar
Rosen, Stanley. 1987. Hermeneutics as Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Strauss, Leo. 1935. Philosophie und Gesetz. Berlin: Schocken.Google Scholar
Strauss, Leo. 1945. “Farabi's Plato.” In Louis Ginzberg Jubilee Volume. New York: American Academy for Jewish Research.Google Scholar
Strauss, Leo. 1953. Natural Right and History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Strauss, Leo. 1957. “How Farabi Read Plato's Laws.” Melanges Louis Massignon. Damascus: Institut Francais de Damas.Google Scholar
Strauss, Leo. 1959. What Is Political Philosophy? Glencoe, IL: Free Press.Google Scholar
Strauss, Leo. 1964. The City and Man. Chicago: Rand McNally.Google Scholar
Strauss, Leo. 1965. Spinoza's Critique of Religion. New York: Schocken Books.Google Scholar
Strauss, Leo. 1966. Socrates and Aristophanes. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Strauss, Leo. 1983. Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walzer, Richard. 1985. Al-Farabi on the Perfect State. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.