الماهية و الوجود عند الفارابي = Essence and Existence in Al-Farabi's philosophy

Abstract

Essence and existence are the most important existential and philosophical categories. Al Farabi is among the first philosophers who tried through these categories to participate in the existential and philosophical construction. In this paper we would like to show the most important philosophical positions towards the issue of essence and existence and to compare between various ontologies mainly the ones of ‘Al Farabi, Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus’, in order to show the fundamental differences between them and the extent of originality in Al farabi’s point of view. Although Plato confirmed the authenticity of essence, Aristotle confirmed the link between essence and existence, and Plotinus acknowledged the authenticity of essence, it is worth to notice that Al Farabi is the first who distinguished between essence and existence as. Moreover, we intend to determine the specific relationship that combines essence and Existence in Al-Farabi's philosophy, mainly because this relationship has an impact on several areas of thought such as metaphysics and theory of knowledge. Finally, we will show, on the one hand, the most important consequences of this relationship, beginning by the important critics that have affected Al Farabi’s philosophy and tried to highlight his most important contradictions, or negative results. On the other hand, we will highlight the most important positive results that have significant impact on great philosophies, even on contemporary philosophical thought, and to investigate the most important ideas through which Al Farabi would have changed the course of philosophical thought. To conclude we can state that Al farabi represents the most prominent appearance of the issue of Essence and Existence in the history of Islamic philosophy, as he has drafted new concepts, more independent from the previous ones.