Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T05:19:15.586Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Poetic Syllogism according to al-Fārābī: an Incorrect Syllogism of the Second Figure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2002

Maroun Aouad  and
Gregor Schoeler
Maroun Aouad
Affiliation:
Centre d'histoire des sciences et des philosophies arabes et médiévales, 7 rue Guy Môquet, B.P. no 8, 94801 Villejuif Cedex, France
Gregor Schoeler
Affiliation:
Orientalisches Seminar der Universität Basel, 64a Missionsstrasse, 4055 Basel, Switzerland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It is well-known that the Arab philosophers of the Aristotelian tradition, like some of their Alexandrian predecessors, attached rhetoric and poetics to logic, and supported this inclusion by the idea that the principal poetic procedure - that is, essentially, metaphor - is a kind of syllogism: the poetic syllogism. However, until now, no texts prior to those of Avicenna had been identified which render the structure of this syllogism explicit. In the present contribution, we present and translate a passage from al-Fārābī which shows that for him, the poetic syllogism is an incorrect syllogism of the second figure - a different interpretation from that which will be given by Avicenna.

Type
Research Article
Information
Arabic Sciences and Philosophy , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , September 2002 , pp. 185 - 196
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press

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.)