Where can I study this in more detail?

Question

I am finding al-Farabi's Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle on pages 13-17, paragraphs 1-9, (pages 11-13 in the pdf file linked below), very interesting:

http://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Alfarabis-Philosophy-of-Plato-and-Aristotle-Translated-by-Muhsin-Mahdi.pdf

What science is this? Is it a branch of Aristotelian logic? It seems to be more "meta" than simply elementary logic. I cannot find similar discussions as al-Farabi's in books such as Jevons's elementary lessons in logic, for example.

What is the science which al-Farabi is discussing and where can I study it in more detail? Is it Aristotelian metaphysics?

Answer 1

In paragraph 6, al-Farabi describes Aristotle's four causes. The reference on page 134 points to Aristotle's Posterior Analytics ii. 11. 94*20-23.

One may also consider survey articles on Aristotle's four causes to guide further study and provide more reference material. Here are two:

1. Falcon, Andrea, "Aristotle on Causality", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2019 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2019/entries/aristotle-causality/.

2. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, February 17). Four causes. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 12:08, April 23, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Four_causes&oldid=883754450

Answer 2

This might be too late or out of scope, but I think you might be interested by Al-Kalam, which "islamic" rational philosophy (islamic is related to the civilization, not to the content necesseraly). It does build on some grec and hindou philosophies.

Good day