Galen’s Institutio Logica and al-Farabi’s Logic. A Reassessment of Parallelisms that Show a Possible Influence

Year 2024, Volume: 6 Issue: 1, 6 - 25, 02.10.2024

Miguel Carmona Tabja

Abstract

The aim of the following paper is to evaluate a possible influence of Galen’s Institutio logica on al-Farabi’s logic, following Zimmermann’s and Lameer’s evidence for certain parallelisms between them. Among the scholars of al-Farabi’s logic, we find at least two authors that affirm such a textual relation, Zimmermann (1981) and Lameer (1994). However, this influence is explicitly denied by at least another study on al-Farabi’s logic, Hodges (2020). This paper then will focus on establishing what are the arguments for this influence, in Zimmermann’s and Lameer’s terms, to then re-evaluate, comparing al-Farabi’s and Galen’s writings if we can still defend that this is the case.

Keywords

al-Farabi, Galen, history of logic, history of philosophy, Graeco-Arabica

Galen'in Institutio Logica'sı ve Farabi'nin Mantığı. Olası Bir Etkiyi Gösteren Paralelliklerin Yeniden Değerlendirilmesi

Abstract

Bu makalenin amacı, Zimmermann ve Lameer'in aralarındaki bazı paralelliklere dair delillerini takip ederek, Galen'in Institutio Logica'sının Farabi'nin mantığı üzerindeki olası etkisini değerlendirmektir. Farabi mantığı üzerine çalışan akademisyenler arasında böyle bir metinsel ilişkiyi onaylayan en az iki yazar buluyoruz: Zimmermann (1981) ve Lameer (1994). Ancak bu etki, Farabi'nin mantığı üzerine en azından başka bir çalışma olan Hodges (2020) tarafından açıkça reddedilmektedir. Bu makale daha sonra Zimmermann ve Lameer'in terimleriyle bu etkiyi destekleyen argümanların neler olduğunu belirlemeye odaklanacak ve daha sonra durumun böyle olduğunu hala savunabiliyorsak Farabi ve Galen'in yazılarını karşılaştırarak yeniden değerlendirecektir.

Keywords

Farabi, Galen, mantık tarihi, felsefe tarihi, Yunan-Arabica

Thanks

I would like to thank Dr. Yunus Emre AKBAY, whom I met during my stay in Cambridge University Divinity Faculty, for his kind invitation to submit my article to Mantık Araştırmaları Journal.

References

• Al-Farabi, Abu Nasr. “Al-Farabi’s Paraphrase of the ‘Categories’ of Aristotle”. trans. Douglas Dunlop. Islamic Quarterly 5/1 (1959), 21-54.
• Al-Farabi, Abu Nasr. Al-Farabi’s Short Commentary on Aristotle’s Prior Analytics. trans. Nicholas Rescher. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1963.
• Al-Farabi, Abu Nasr. Kitāb fī al-mantiq. Al-khaṭāba. ed. Muhammad Salim Salim. Cairo: Maṭba‘a dār al-kutub.
• Al-Farabi, Abu Nasr. Al-Farabi’s Commentary and Short Treatise on Aristotle’s De Interpretatione. trans. Fritz Zimmermann. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.
• Al-Farabi, Abu Nasr. Al-mantiq ‘inda al-Fārābī. ed. Rafiq al-‘Ajam. 4 Volumes. Beirut: Dar al-Mashreq, 1986.
• Al-Farabi, Abu Nasr. Syllogism: An Abridgement of Aristotle’s Prior Analytics. trans. Saloua Chatti & Wilfrid Hodges. London: Bloomsbury, 2020.
• Aristotle. Aristotelis Categoriae et Liber De Interpretatione. ed. Lorenzo Minio-Paluello. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1949.
• Bobzien, Susanne. “Pre-Stoic Hypothetical Syllogistic in Galen’s Institutio logica”. Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. Supplement 77 (2002). 57-72.
• Bobzien, Susanne. “Peripatetic Hypothetical Syllogistic in Galen”. Rhizai. A Journal for Ancient Philosophy and Science 2 (2004). 57-102.
• Galen. Galeni Institutio Logica. ed. Karl Kalbfleisch. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1896.
• Galen. Galen’s Institutio Logica: English Translation, Introduction, and Commentary. ed. & trans. John Kieffer. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1964.
• Hodges, Wilfrid. “Introduction”. Syllogism: An Abridgement of Aristotle’s Prior Analytics. auth. Abu Nasr al-Farabi. trans. Saloua Chatti & Wilfrid Hodges. London: Bloomsbury, 2020.
• Ibn al-Nadim, Muhammad. The Fihrist of al-Nadim; a tenth-century survey of Muslim culture. ed. & trans. Bayard Dodge. 2 Volumes. New York: Columbia University Press, 1970.
• Ibn Ishaq, Hunayn. Hunain Ibn Ishaq. Über die Syrischen und Arabischen Galen- Übersetzungen. ed. Gotthelf Bergsträsser. Leipzig: Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 1925.
• Karimullah, Kamran. “Alfarabi on conditionals”. Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 24 (2014). 211-267. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0957423914000022
• Lameer, Joep. Al-Farabi And Aristotelian Syllogistics: Greek Theory and Islamic Practice. New York: E.J. Brill, 1994.
• Morrison, Ben. “Logic”. The Cambridge Companion to Galen. ed. Robert Hankinson. 66-115. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
• Zimmermann, Fritz. “Introduction: Al-Farabi’s Theory of Propositions in its Doctrinal Setting”. Al-Farabi’s Commentary and Short Treatise on Aristotle’s De interpretatione. auth. Abu Nasr al-Farabi. ed. & trans. Fritz Zimmermann. i-cl. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.