Muslim Political Philosophy and the Affective Turn: Farabi on Language, Affect, and Reason

This article considers the significance of affect in the political philosophy of the Shi'a thinker Abu Nasr Farabi (d. 950 CE). The essay's theoretical intervention makes Farabi's philosophy relevant for the nascent turn to human affections, emotions, and capacities within the humanities and the social sciences. This study illustrates the unison of reason and affect in Farabi's political theory, especially his vision of language, his socio-linguistic grounding of prophethood and the Imamate, and his attention to human bodies, dispositions, habits, and feelings. As a theoretical exposition of Farabi's political philosophy in conversation with contemporary theory and psychoanalytic thought, the essay does not offer sustained commentary on modern Shi'a or Sunni politics. This theoretical exposition invites future work to explore the resourcefulness of the affective turn for understanding the concept and practice of politics in particular Muslim contexts.(1)