Da οὐσία a jawhar. Al-Fārābī sulla terminologia dell’essere dal greco all’arabo

Abū Naṣr al-Fārābī’s reflections on the technical language of philosophy are part of the intense debate between traditional culture, based on the grammatical and lexicographical study of the Arabic language, on the one hand, and the study of philosophy on the model of the schools of late antiquity, especially in Alexandria, on the other. This was a debate that must have strongly animated the cultural life of the 10th century in the ʿabbāsid capital of Baghdad, in which al-Fārābī was an active participant. In his Kitāb al-ḥurūf, section 13, § 62-73, he examines the meaning of ǧawhar (substance). This is the first analysis of this concept in medieval Arabic philosophy. He begins with a lexicological analysis of the term ǧawhar. First, he explains the ordinary meanings of the term in everyday language - where it is commonly used to refer to a precious stone, pearl or gem - and its metaphorical uses, and only secondly does he explain the philosophical concept. In fact, philosophers seem to develop distinctions that are already superficially perceived by ordinary language speakers, such as the absolute meaning of ǧawhar and the relative meaning (ǧawhar of x). Starting from a concept of substance as presented by Aristotle in the Categories, through a doxography of the various philosophical conceptions of substance, αl-Fārābī goes so far as to call ǧawhar the being that lies beyond the categories, in the perfect and supersensible world of intelligences and causes.