Download or read book Metaphysics as Rhetoric written by Joshua Parens and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1995-01-01 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Parens argues that Alfarabi, the tenth-century Muslim philosopher, demonstrated that Plato is not the originator of Western metaphysics, and that what appears to be Plato's metaphysics was intended as a rhetorical defense of his politics.