Aql bi al-Fi'l () is a kind of
intellect
Intellect is a faculty of the human mind that enables reasoning, abstraction, conceptualization, and judgment. It enables the discernment of truth and falsehood, as well as higher-order thinking beyond immediate perception. Intellect is dis ...
in
Islamic philosophy
Islamic philosophy is philosophy that emerges from the Islamic tradition. Two terms traditionally used in the Islamic world are sometimes translated as philosophy—''falsafa'' (), which refers to philosophy as well as logic, mathematics, and p ...
. This level deals with readiness of the soul for acquiring the forms without receiving them again.
Historical background
Al-Kindi
Abū Yūsuf Yaʻqūb ibn ʼIsḥāq aṣ-Ṣabbāḥ al-Kindī (; ; ; ) was an Arab Muslim polymath active as a philosopher, mathematician, physician, and music theorist
Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understandin ...
pointed out to a kind of intellect which could reach from the state of potentiality, to the state of actuality.
pointed out that the first level of actualization of intellect is the potential intellect. The second stage is Aql bi al-Fi'l or actual intellect. The actual intellect reflects upon itself. In other word when intellect acquired forms and categories, reflects upon itself, this action is called actual intellect.
Groff classify the actual intellect as third.
meanwhile Farabi used the term Aql bi al-Fi'l for intellect in full exercise of its powers.
Iji, known theologian, referred to the actual intellect versus potential intellect.
It seems that the term Aql bi al-Fi'l in Avicenna is comparable with Al-Ruh Al-Aqli for
Al-Ghazali
Al-Ghazali ( – 19 December 1111), archaically Latinized as Algazelus, was a Shafi'i Sunni Muslim scholar and polymath. He is known as one of the most prominent and influential jurisconsults, legal theoreticians, muftis, philosophers, the ...
.
Concept
If the intellect acquired its knowledge so that it could access them any time it wants then the intellect is called actual intellect.
In this degree, Aql is in act which is compared to the absolute potency of the material Aql and has a first form of knowledge.
For Farabi, the potential intellect becomes the actual.
In fact the most important task of the actual intellect is to acquire secondary intelligible from primary intelligible and be ready to employ them all at any time. This stage has similarities with Aql bi al-Malaka but its task is much greater.
This intellect also is the second perfection of intellect.
However, this kind of intellect allows to human free themselves from illusion and errors.
See also
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Aql bi al-Quwwah Aql bi al-Quwwah () is the first stage of the intellect's hierarchy in Islamic philosophy. This kind of reason is also called the potential or material intellect. In philosophy thus kind of intellect also called as passive intellect.
Historical bac ...
*
'Aql
''Aql'' () is an Arabic term used in Islamic philosophy and theology for the intellect or the rational faculty of the soul that connects humans to God. According to Islamic beliefs, ''aql'' is what guides humans towards the right path ('' sirat ...
References
Sources
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Islamic philosophy
Islamic terminology
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