1
Associate Professor, Faculty of Theology, University of Tehran.
2
Master's student at Shahid Beheshti University.
Abstract
In Farabi's ideal city (al-Madīnah al-Fāḍilah), art holds a special place, and virtuous art is considered one of the most effective factors in the happiness of both the individual and society. Farabi is concerned with the well-being and prosperity of individuals and human communities, and he regards the ultimate happiness as intellectual happiness—that is, the knowledge of intelligible truths. However, in his view, the general public, either by nature, due to acquired habits, or sometimes because of the nature of certain intelligibles, are incapable of attaining conceptual and assenting knowledge (taṣawwur and taṣdīq) of these intelligible truths. Prophets, through revelation, present happiness and intelligible truth to individuals and societies in the form of imaginative and persuasive representations. In following them, the practitioners of art, along with the orators, employ imaginative and persuasive methods to disseminate the conception and assent of happiness and truth among the people of the ideal city. In the ideal city, on the one hand, poets and artists use imagination to conceive the essence and reality of things, and on the other hand, orators employ persuasive methods to promote the content of rational demonstration. From Farabi's perspective, entertainment in virtuous art is permissible and has specific criteria and limits.
Theology of Art