Yaqūb al-qirqisānī on human intellect,legal inference,and the meaning of the aristotelian syllogism

Abstract

In the fourth treatise of his legal-theological work Kitāb al-Anwār wa-al-Marāqib, Yaqūb al-Qirqisānī analyzes a criticism of the Aristotelian syllogism and its epistemological foundations. Qirqisānī defends Aristotelian logic by quoting a passage from an unknown commentary on Aristotle in which the Aristotelian theory of syllogism is explicated. This paper focuses on the historical, theological, and philosophical meanings of the criticism of the syllogism in Qirqisānī's discussion and analyzes his interpretation of the syllogism as a source of knowledge that should be applied in the realm of legal reasoning and in the interpretation of biblical law.