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Treatise · 10 century

كِتَابُ القِيَاسِ الصَّغِيرِ

al-Qiyās al-ṣaghīr

al-Fārābī · d. 339/950

The Short Treatise on the Syllogism is a compact account of the Prior Analytics, also known as the logic 'in the way of the theologians'. It covers the three figures and their valid moods, justified by reduction to the first figure, and chains of compound syllogisms. Its distinctive aim is to read the arguments of the mutakallimūn and the analogical reasoning (qiyās) of the jurists as syllogisms; some manuscripts add a closing section on 'transfer' and its use in jurisprudence. It is an early example of the effort to show that logic serves kalām and fiqh, which al-Ghazālī later made central.

Draft · awaiting review by a qualified teacher

Author
al-Fārābī
Died
339/950
Written
10 century
Language
Arabic
Written on
Aristotle's Prior Analytics

Editions and translations

الطَّبَعات

  • ed. Rafīq al-ʿAjam, al-Manṭiq ʿinda al-Fārābī, vol. 2, Beirut: Dar el-Machreq, 1986, pp. 65–93
  • tr. Nicholas Rescher, Al-Fārābī's Short Commentary on Aristotle's Prior Analytics, Pittsburgh 1963

Also by al-Fārābī

Sources (2)

  1. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: al-Farabi's Philosophy of Logic and Language
  2. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Arabic and Islamic Philosophy of Language and Logic