Nature of Art in Fārābī’s Thought

Abstract

Fārābī discusses art in two levels: art as it is, and art as it should be or the utopian art. Considering art as it is includes desirable and undesirable arts. But the utopian art or art as the working of the utopian artist consists only of desirable ones. When describing the desirable art, Fārābī focuses on bringing goodness and happiness into imagination and moderating the feelings. Undesirable and wicked arts are just on the opposite side of desirable ones. They seek to corrupt thoughts and tend to immoderate sensual qualities and moods. In Fārābī's view, people understand the intelligible truths and meanings through imagination. Furthermore, the arousal of people’s feelings and emotions often originates from the imagination and the imaginary forms. The ultimate goal of the utopia is that the public achieve the intelligible happiness. Given that the public, based on their nature or habit, are not able to perceive the intelligible truths, the intelligible happiness should be transferred to their imagination. The utopian artist is able to embody the intelligible happiness using sensory and imaginary forms and he/she brings the intelligible happiness close to people's minds through their imagination.

Keywords

• fārābī
• undesirable art
• desirable art
• imaginary forms
• intelligible happiness emotions