Introduction

Summary

The introduction concerns my division of the entire Arabic text and a brief discussion of the ways in which the various parts of the discussion fit into the larger whole. It groups the numerous divisions into parts and explains why my commentary will consider the parts in a specific order. It also offers a brief biography of Alfarabi including notes on his intellectual successors, a survey of historical reports concerning the ways in which his expansive body of work was received, in addition to a brief treatment of the art of dialectic as it was depicted by Plato’s Socrates and Aristotle.