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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOI'EDl.V
Alfoil
Isaac Raphael Alfandari
Son of Huyvim, and VdUMiri-r; ilicdiihoiil Ki'.Hl. lie lived iii t'oMsiaiitiiKiplc in llic srvciitfcnlli cunlury. Some of liis irsponsii urc piililisliiMl in Ids fiilluTs colIfctioii, "Mags" iiic Hcshit." C'onstiuitiuople, 1710. fallimir lla
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BiiiLiooRAPiiY: Oi(. Helir.
Bt'iijaoili, r>z<ir lia-Sefartm, p. 2111; Iliiiihii llrit. ilim.s.v.
Ztilut-r.
Jacob ben Hayyirn Alfandati: Talnmdic writer Cniislantinopli' in the seventeenth eenIn HiS^U he refers to himself as an old man (" Mu/.zal Mic-Esh," p. fi). lie was the author of a volume of responsiV edited by his nephew Ilayyim the Younger (Constantinople. ITl.'^), entitled ">lu/.zal me-Esli (Plucked from the Fire), because it was saved from a contlairralion which consumed mostof llieauthor's manuscripts. Others of his responsii arc printed in the collection of his father and in that of Joseph Kazabi (Constantinople, 173(i; sec Stcinschneider, '•Cat. Hodl." col. IIT',1). D.
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ALFAatJIN (also Alfaquein, A surname iriven in Spain
fuqui)
Alfaqui, Algenerally to the
physician, and alshysics, " and of commentaries on his " Phys
S(mH' of
liis
brew versions. the "Logic" of
ics" and "Xikomachean Ethics." Of his original works the following are the best known: (1) "The Hook of Principles" (Sefer ha-Tchalol), tnuislaled into Hebrew by -Moses ben Sanuiel ibn Tibbon, 12-18, anil edited hv Filipowskv in the YearHook "Sefer" hil-Asif"(l.s,-)()-51). This His Works. work is a <c>ncise i)resentation of the enlire Peripatetic philosophy. In it Alfarabi discusses the six principles of all Being, and the unity of God: (1) The divine principle, or the jirimary cause, which is a unity (2) the secondary causes, or the intellecis of thccelcslial spheres; (3) the active intellect; (4) the s(nil (5) form; (fi) abstract matter. Oidy the lirst of these principles is absolute unity the others representing multiplicity. The tirst tliice principles are not bodies, nor are they indirect relation wilh bodies; neither are the last three l)y themselves bodies, they are only luiiled with them. Corresponding to these principles, there are six kinds of bodies: (1 the celestial (2) the rationalanimal; (3) the irrational animal; (4) the vegetable; All these (5) the luineral; ((!) the four elements. principles and bodies condiined in a whole form the Universe. teaches that God can not consist of He conceivable jiarts; that, tudike man, who needs six dilferent things to produce anything, lie has no cause for His action but Himself. The problem of ])ro|)hecv is also treated in this work, prophecy being in his opinion merely a natural mainfestation of the intellect, ])<'rnutting man to |)redict the future. Alfarabi declares fur the freedom of man's will, anil jn'otcsts against the use of aslmlngy. Thetirsl.or metaphysical, part of the book is followed by apolitical oncadis-scrtation on the various forms of government. The welfare of both individual and state depends upon speculative science. The i)rincemiist always be a philosopher. (2) "The Distribution of the Sciences." translated and condensed by Kalonynius ben Kalonymus of .rles (1314), a work that was of much value to Jewish authors because of its encyclopedic presentation of the sciences. (3) A "Trea1i.se upon the Naliue of the Soul." translated by Zerahiah ben Isaac. ]u-obably in 12.H4, in Home, ande<lited by Edelmann in "Hem<lah Genuzah." (4)
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ni73L"10ni ?3t;'n 'D. an essay on the various meanings of the wcjrd "intellect" in Aristotle, translated into Hebrew by .Tedaiah IVdersi, KiOO. and published in 1858 by Michael Hosenslein. Concerning Alfarabi's value as a iihilosopher, Maimonides remarks that in order to learn logic one needs occi]v himself only with Alfarabi's writings, since all that he wrote, especially the "Book of Principles," is "flne floiu-"; that hi' was a distinguished scholar, and hence much His could be learned from him. But even Logic. before ,Maimonides' pi-aise of .Vlfarabi. he was a great favorite among .lewish students. Moses ibn Ezra (1 130) (|notes from a col lection of philoso|)hical ajdiorisms by Alfarabi. and cites a passiige concerning poetry taken from his encyclopedia. The view that all creatures stand related to each otherinadeternnned orderof gradation, which is to be found in Judah hai.evi ("Cuzari." i. 31), seems to have been drawn from Alfarabi's "Principles." It was especially Alfarabi's monotheistic tendency
which attracted .lewish minds; with him metaphysand the unity of God are identical. The idea ex])rcssed by Judah ha-Levi. that the limitations of our powers of sight do not jiermit us to conceive God (" Cuzari. " v. 21). is derived from Alfarabi. But ics
