MWANAFALSAFA
Al-Farabi
أبو نصر محمد الفارابي
- Lifespan
- c. 870 – 950/951
- Region & background
- Probably Farab, Central Asia (origin debated: Persian or Turkic) — worked in Baghdad, died in Damascus
- Intellectual tradition
- Falsafa — logic and political philosophy
Key ideas
- The virtuous city: a society organised around knowledge, virtue and shared happiness
- Happiness as the ultimate human end, reached through knowledge and virtue
- Logic as the instrument that distinguishes demonstration from persuasion
- Classification of the sciences
Abū Naṣr Muḥammad al-Fārābī was probably born around 870 in Farab, in Central Asia, and died in Damascus in 950 or 951. Very little about his life is reliably known, and scholars disagree on whether his family was of Persian or Turkic origin; he wrote in Arabic and spent much of his career in Baghdad.
Later tradition called him the “Second Teacher”, after Aristotle. He wrote extensively on logic, classified the sciences, and composed a major book on music. His political philosophy, especially The Opinions of the People of the Virtuous City and The Political Regime, adapts Plato to a vast, multilingual and multireligious society: the virtuous city is one organised so that its people can attain true happiness, guided by a wise ruler.
Notable works
- The Opinions of the People of the Virtuous City (Ārāʾ Ahl al-Madīna al-Fāḍila)
- The Political Regime (al-Siyāsa al-Madaniyya)
- Enumeration of the Sciences (Iḥṣāʾ al-ʿUlūm)
- The Attainment of Happiness (Taḥṣīl al-Saʿāda)
- The Great Book of Music (Kitāb al-Mūsīqā al-Kabīr)