Delineating Dialectic: The Perfect Philosopher in al-Fārābī’s Commentary on Topics VIII 1

Abstract

This article presents and discusses two previously unpublished fragments from al-Fārābī’s (d. 950/1) literal commentary on Topics VIII. This text survives only in a Hebrew translation of the provençal intellectual Ṭodros ben Mešullam ben David Ṭodrosi (born 1313) and is part of an anthology of philosophical texts that he produced around the year 1333 in Trinquetaille, Arles. In these two fragments, al-Fārābī assesses Aristotle’s claim in Top. VIII 1, 155b7-10 that the philosopher and the dialectician differ insofar as the philosopher does not need the ability to address others in his speech, while the dialectician necessarily does. Through a close reading of these fragments, the article aims to show that al-Fārābī’s commentary is more than mere textual exegesis: Al-Fārābī juxtaposes Aristotle’s claim with the concept of ‘philosopher’ that he himself develops, both in his political writings and in his abridgements of Aristotle’s Organon . In discussing whether or not a philosopher needs to have command over teaching others, as well as refuting and testing their opinions, al-Fārābī gives a straightforward account of the natures and definitions of both the philosopher and the dialectician, which leads him to distinguish two ways in which a philosopher can be called ‘perfect’. It will be argued that al-Fārābī’s commentary on Topics VIII is therefore an important source text for discussing the way in which he navigates between the different definitions of ‘philosopher’ inherited from the ancient and late ancient philosophical tradition.