SOURCE: Druart, Thérèse-Anne. “Al-Farabi and Emanationism.” In Studies in Medieval Philosophy, edited by John F. Wippel, pp. 23-43. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1987.

In the following essay, Druart examines al-Fārābī's presentation of emanationism and defends the author's writings against charges of inconsistency by explaining that al-Fārābī's loyalty to Aristotle sometimes led him to shy away from stressing any limitations in Aristotle's views.

In 1981 Barry Sherman Kogan showed that emanationism had been a very controversial doctrine in Arabic philosophy.¹ In The Incoherence of the Philosophers al-Ghazali relentlessly criticizes al-Farabi and Avicenna for adopting it.² The Epitome of Metaphysics attributed to Averroes upholds emanationism but understands that it is not an Aristotelian tenet.³ In The Incoherence of the Incoherence, his point-by-point reply to al-Ghazali, and in his Commentary on Metaphysics XII, Averroes concurs with al-Ghazali in rejecting emanationism...