Definition of Intellect by аl-Farabi and Modern Times

Abstract

This article reviews the issue of intellect and its types in the work of the outstanding thinker of the Arabic world «Reasoning of the Second Teacher Al-Farabi on the meaning of (the word) intellect». The authors highlight the relevance of Al-Farabi’s analysis of the meaning and gist of intellect in the modern context. The main question the correct answer to which is to be found is the difference between the consciousness (thinking) and the intellect. The authors demonstrate that the intellect is aimed to search for what is needed and even inevitable in a way, whereas the consciousness is capable to «build constructions in one’s mind», accordingly, freedom takes two forms which are the conscious necessity and the conscious opportunity. A homo sapiens and a thinking individual are not synonyms. Nowadays this thesis has a special meaning to distinguish between the meanings an «intellectual nation» and a «thinking individual».
Key words: intellect, brain, mind, thinking, types of intellect, intellectual capacity, intellectual nation, thinking individual.