  At the heart of this epistemology is a notion of human receptivity; in line with our discussion of al-Farabian vs. Avicennian epistemology above, we might describe this receptivity in one of three ways: (1) the soul’s receiving an overflow of intelligibles from active intellect, (2) the soul’s receiving an overflow of representations of intelligibles from active intellect, or (3) the soul’s receiving an overflow from active intellect which enables it to abstract intelligibles from the sensory world). There emerges additionally a notion of human fitness: human happiness is, as al-Farabi says, “given to the possible beings capable of receiving it” (PR, N1 35). For al-Farabi, human beings possess different natural dispositions, leaving some of them unable—by their very nature—to ever rise to the level of human perfection: