Abu Nasr al-Farabi · Philosophy

Emanation and the Active Intellect

al-Farabi’s cosmology and its human payoff: how all things flow (emanate) from the perfect, self-sufficient First Cause down through a hierarchy of intellects to our world; how the last of them, the Active Intellect, lights up the human mind; and how our happiness lies in perfecting that mind until it reaches conjunction with it.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that al-Farabi’s cosmos emanates from the First Cause through a chain of intellects down to the Active Intellect, which actualizes the human mind; and that human happiness and immortality consist in perfecting the intellect until it reaches conjunction with the Active Intellect. Explain the emanation…

Leads to Plotinus.

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