Alfarabi And Aristotle: The Four Causes And The Four Stages Of The Doctrine Of The Intelligence

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system for the humanity at large; a system
that sought to break barriers and facilitate relations among people and nations.
This work sounded very similar to the work presented by Plato in Plato's
Republic. They both took into consideration the matter of city/state, who was
to govern, who was to be governed, how this governing was to take place, how it
was to be enforced, and so on. It also appears clear that he was influenced
greatly by Aristotle. This influence is present in his "Doctrine of the
Intellect". The Doctrine of the intellect was Alfarabi's approach to giving his
own interpretation to the intellect.
There are strong similarities between Alfarabi's Doctrine of the
Intellect and Aristotle's "Four Causes". Needless to say that they each are
comprised of four stages, but the stages seem very similar, they seem to be
representative of one another, almost to the point of defining one another. It
will be demonstrated that Alfarabi used Aristotle's "Four Causes" to derive ...

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is the same
thing as the essence of other objects. This requires mind and form. The mind
sees the forms and collects them merely as forms. Here with Aristotle the first
stage is a gatherer. The mind, though not defined what it is, is defined by the
function that it has.
The second cause for Aristotle was called "formal" or life force.
Aristotle borrowed this form from Plato. The main question asked by this cause
is: "What is it's identity or what is its name?" This is also the second stage
of the Doctrine of the Intellect for Alfarabi. Alfarabi considers this to be the
active stage where the sponge is filled with objects. As the objects enter it
the process of abstracting out forms ...

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