Metaphysical influence on al-Fārābī's understanding of knowledge

Al-Fārābī's understanding of knowledge is based on the distinction between conception and confirmation. Understanding this nuance, which is related to each other but at the same time expresses more than the mere distinction between singular and compound maʾqūl, helps to clarify the position of knowledge in al-Fārābī's philosophy. According to al-Fārābī, the formation of knowledge requires the harmony of the senses, internal faculties, intellect, the Active Intellect, and rational conditions. When these factors are accepted as stages, knowledge is realized in the human soul first through the concept, then through the proposition, and finally through the fulfillment of the necessary conditions. This study focuses on determining the metaphysical effect of the Active Intellect during the acquisition of knowledge, the boundaries of which are drawn by al-Fārābī. To this end, the theoretical framework of the issue is presented by examining the relationship of each factor with the Active Intellect in the process that starts from the senses and ends in the intellect. In addition, the formation of concepts, their emergence in the mind and how their accuracy is ensured were examined. In the propositional dimension, the place of metaphysical influence in the formation of knowledge through belief, truth, justification, and certainty was tried to be determined. Thus, al-Fārābī's boundaries for knowledge were taken into account in order to obtain a definition, and through this, it was attempted to show how knowledge differs from all propositions that converge at the point of belief. As a result, it is emphasized that in al-Fārābī's understanding of knowledge, the metaphysical effect occurs during the universalization of the concept in the intellect, and in this sense, the effect remains in the conceptual dimension and has no effect on the proposition. Thus, by examining the principles of demonstrative syllogism, which is found in the intellect as certain knowledge, it was revealed that the emanation that takes place during the Active Intellect's unification with the human intellect is not knowledge in the sense of episteme in epistemological terms.