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Al Farabi Contribution

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Al Farabi’s philosophical contribution

Abu Nasr Muhammad al- Farabi, one the earliest Islamic intellectuals who were instrumental in transmitting the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle to the Muslim world, had a considerable influence on the later Islamic philosophers such as Avicenna. He is widely regarded as the founder of philosophy within the Islamic world. Al-Farabi had great influence on science and philosophy for several centuries, and was widely considered second only to Aristotle in knowledge (alluded to by his title of "the Second Teacher") in his time. Al-Farabi was known to the Arabs as the 'Second Master'. He was also a scientist, cosmologist, mathematician and music scholar.
The aim of this paper is to present the attitudes to education of Abu Nasr al-Farabi within the framework of his philosophical system, an aspect of his work, and …show more content…

It is difficult to find a philosopher both in Muslim and Christian world from Middle Ages onwards who has not been influenced by his views. Ammar al-Talbi (2000) suggests that “Al-Farabi represents a turning-point in the history of Islamic philosophical thought, since he was the true first founder of epistemology which relies upon ‘universal reason’ and the demonstrations he gave”. Education is one of the most important social phenomena in al-Farabi’s philosophical system. Al-Farabi’s concern was to reestablish unity to Islamic thought. He believed the first aim of knowledge was knowledge of God and his attributes (F. Copleston, 1980). Philosophy and religion were for him simply two expressions of a single truth, philosophy explains religion and provides proof of it; it is neither in conflict nor in contradiction with it. According to al Farabi the perfect human being, is the one who has obtained theoretical virtue, thus completing his intellectual knowledge and has acquired practical moral virtues thus becoming perfect in his moral

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