Evaluating Imaginal Forms from Farabi's Point of View

Although Farabi has not engaged in the issue of the critique of imagination, one can understand his stance by putting such questions to his works. The issue of the critique of imagination belongs to the realm of the philosophy of arts, and it is of strategic import for the development of the philosophy of Islamic arts to design such problems and try to find their solutions through the works of Muslim philosophers. Farabi has theories about evaluating imagination on the basis of truth and falsity, beauty and ugliness, goodness and badness. He eventually appraises them by the criterion of human beatitude (sa‘ādat). The notion of truth and falsehood in imaginal forms differ from those in the realm of propositions. However, the arbitrator who judges about the beauty and truth of an imaginal form is the intellectual faculty, even in the sphere of imagination.