Abu Nasr al-Farabi · Philosophy
al-Farabi’s influential and dangerous idea: religion is an <em>imitation</em> of philosophy - the same truths and the same happiness, taught by demonstration to the few who can follow proofs, and by images, symbols, and persuasion to the many who cannot; and why the ideal ruler must be a philosopher-prophet who has mastered both.
You learned that al-Farabi held religion to be an imitation of philosophy - conveying the same ultimate truths and the same happiness through images and persuasion rather than demonstration - and that the ideal prophet is a philosopher whose powerful imagination clothes intellectual truth in symbols the multitude can…
Leads to Moses Maimonides.
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