This article, the tenth in an occasional series on past treatments of major issues in arts education policy from antiquity through the twentieth century, discusses philosopher Avicenna's view that art's aesthetic value bestows intrinsic public benefits sufficient to command community support of the arts. By exploring Avicenna's comparison of the similarities and differences between the abstract thinking characteristic of philosophy and the engaged thinking characteristic of art, one can learn more about the pedagogy of perfecting productive cognition, as well as about Islamic notions of the role of aesthetic education in perfecting citizenship. The authors contend that a pedagogy that acknowledges the intrinsic value of art by capitalizing on aesthetic education's unique role in the development of ideal citizens is needed. (Contains 19 endnotes.)