Beyond Struggle and Power: Heidegger's Secret ... - Interpretation

4 2 Interpretation
Identifying these “waves” of Alfarabi’s argument is a considerable
accomplishment on Parens’ part, because Alfarabi is circumspect, to say
the least, about his true meaning. I find even the first sentence of the
Attainment puzzling:
The human things through which nations and citizens of cities
attain earthly happiness in this life and supreme happiness in the life
beyond are of four kinds: theoretical virtues, deliberative virtues,
moral virtues, and practical arts. (sec. 1)
It is the “human things” wording that strikes me as curious.
Why not call the subject “the ways nations and cities attain happiness” or “how
citizens attain happiness”? In choosing phraseology I find odd, Alfarabi draws
my attention to it: human as opposed to what, for example—natural animal
instinct? a deity’s power? certainty? If Alfarabi is referring to the classical
understanding of humanity, then the human element might indicate rationality—that
Alfarabi is going to explain what our reason can do to assist our
efforts toward happiness. That makes sense, since Alfarabi is referring to “happiness”
rather than pleasure. Human is also easily counterpoised to godlike, so
Alfarabi could be differentiating between how the deity contributes to human
happiness (for those readers who are believers) and how people can work
toward their own happiness. This would be a smooth move for Alfarabi,
deflecting religious critics right off the bat by allowing them to continue reading
with at least one foot firmly planted in their intellectual comfort zone. The
implication here is that regardless of whether the deity does or does not provide
human happiness, there are things humans can do to make themselves
happy, and his treatise will confine itself to that aspect. There is also the possibility
that Alfarabi uses the term “human” to denote a lack of certainty in
outcome, i.e., these are the things people can do to become happy if happiness
is even possible.
As already noted, the Attainment is actually the first book of a
trilogy; the other two books are Alfarabi’s somewhat manipulated renditions of
Plato’s and Aristotle’s philosophies. The relationship among the three parts is
not obvious even though Alfarabi says it is. After describing his own premises
for a virtuous city in Attainment of Happiness, he asserts, “The philosophy that
answers to this description was handed down to us by the Greeks from Plato
and Aristotle only… So let it be clear to you that, in what they presented, their
purpose is the same, and that they intended to offer one and the same philosophy”
(sec. 64). The Philosophy of Plato and the Philosophy of Aristotle, then,