Al-Farabi and Aristotelian Syllogistics: Greek Theory and Islamic Practices (review)

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS 135 unity of composite substances and their reproduction simply in physical terms (using the notion of vital heat), or whether Aristotle explains these phenomena in both physical terms (vital heat) and in terms of forms and ends. Hence, at the end of the book, where we learn how and why Aristotle's purely material explanation (vital heat) fails, it is unclear whether or not we are meant to conclude that Aristotle's natural philosophy simply lacks an adequate explanation of the unity and reproduction of substances. The strength and interest of this book lie in its systemic development of the roles of vital heat and connate pneuma in Aristotle's biological writings. What emerges is a picture of Aristotelian living substances that are primarily characterized by their internal heat; a vision of nature that is continuous, hierarchical, and organized by the principle of vital heat. This interpretation emphasizes the continuities between Aristotle's vision of nature with that of the Presocratics and the medical tradition, and Freudenthal provides informative and intelligent discussions of Aristotle's probable sources. Of course, as Freudenthal admits, vital heat cannot be both a material principle of unity and a principle that establishes a metaphysical hierarchy among natural beings. Vital heat is meant to explain why man is the most perfect animal, and why we walk upright, and it does so by means of its tendency to rise. But this explanation of how vital heat establishes a hierarchy and a value system in nature renders it unfit to act as a principle of material unity. For, the problem of material unity was generated by the idea that the four elements have natural tendencies to move apart. Because of Aristotle 's topological vision of matter, it seems futile for him to suggest a material solution to the problem of unity. With regard to reproduction, the prospects are brighter. For, it is clear that Aristotle bestows generative power on the male by virtue of the greater heat of his pneuma, and it is also clear that the pneuma bears the motions that convey the form to the offspring. Beyond those two facts, however, nothing is clear. Freudenthal attributes "informing" power to the pneuma; on his interpretation, it is both an efficient and a formal cause of the generation. Maybe so, but in light of the rich scholarly debate on this point in the past fifteen years, this interpretation requires argument and philosophical analysis rather than simple assertion. Freudenthal's Aristotle is engaged in a "global project" to provide a unified physiological account of soul-functions; vital heat is the central hypothesis of his research project. While I find this characterization of Aristotle's writing on nature unconvincing , Freudenthal does succeed in establishing that vital heat and pneuma are ubiquitous presences in Aristotle's biology that cannot be ignored by scholars. CHARLOTTE WITT Universityof New Hampshire Joep Lameer, AI-Farabi and Aristotelian Syllogistics: Greek Theory and Islamic Practices. Leiden: E.J. Brill, x994. Pp. xx + 352. Cloth, $74.5o. Joep Lameer's study, which focuses on Alfarabi's (d. 950-5 l) contribution to logic, serves as a prolegomena to any future study of logic in Islamic philosophy. Alfarabi's i36 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 35: ~ JANUARY 1997 contribution to political philosophy and logic are well recognized. Recently, we have received a more complete view of his original ideas on analytic metaphysics, mostly due to the works of Muhsin S. Mahdi. A large number of Alfarabi's surviving texts are analyzed in this book. Lameer is very clear and applies first-order predicate logic to render some of Alfarabi's themes (22o-~2). He focuses on (i) primary sources needed to study Alfarabi's logic in Greek, Syriac, and Arabic, (ii) standard logic as covered in Aristotle's Prior Analytics and Topics, syllogisms, the logic of terms, induction , and paradigm, (iii) logic used in theological arguments (from the observable to the hidden), (iv) legal reasoning, and (v) metalogical issues in political philosophy and metaphysics. The text is full of insights, including: (a) Alfarabi was not influenced by any Latin philosophical tradition (xxi), (b) the Book of Agreement between the Views of the Divine Plato and...