REPRESENTATION AND DIVINATION IN THE FARABIAN CONCEPT OF SPIRITUAL PROPHECY

Аннотация

This article considers the medieval thinker al-Farabi’s comprehensive perspective on representation and divination. The primary goal of this article is to explore how al-Farabi explored the human ability to foresee the future. Al-Farabi identified four approaches to the study of predictive ability: philosophical, scientific-psychological, religious, and everyday approach. The article's scholarly significance lies in demonstrating the relevance of al-Farabi's approach to contemporary philosophy, science, religion, and social consciousness. Its practical significance lies in its application of al-Farabi’s ideas to contemporary worldviews. In this regard, al-Farabi’s multifaceted approach is not only universal but also reveals how prediction and futurology in general were understood in the Middle Ages. The article utilizes two methods: comparative analysis and hermeneutic interpretation. In this article, the authors also highlight four key findings: (1) al-Farabi’s philosophical approach to predicting the future is deeply metaphysical and ontological; (2) al-Farabi demonstrated the constant psychological need of all humanity to know its future; (3) from a religious perspective, the ability to foresee one’s future is something deeply sacred to humans; (4) within the context of everyday consciousness, the ability to foretell the future can easily be transformed into various superstitions, stereotypes, and prejudices. The primary value of this work is its socio-psychological applicability. The findings of this study can be applied both to social life and to various disciplines in the social sciences and humanities.