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Al-Farabi

Abu Nasr al-Farabi was a philosopher of Central Asian origin who worked mainly in Baghdad and later in Syria. Called 'the Second Teacher' after…

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أبو نصر الفارابي

Also known as Abu Nasr al-Farabi, Alpharabius, the Second Teacher

c. 870 – 950 · Farab (Central Asia), Baghdad, Aleppo, Damascus

Traditions: Islamic

Schools: Falsafa

Abu Nasr al-Farabi was a philosopher of Central Asian origin who worked mainly in Baghdad and later in Syria. Called 'the Second Teacher' after Aristotle, he was a founder of the falsafa tradition, combining Aristotelian logic with a Neoplatonic emanationist metaphysics in which God is the First Cause from which existence flows. He also wrote political philosophy modelled on Plato's ideal city, an account of prophecy, and a major treatise on music and its effects.

Key ideas

  • God, the First Cause, is the one necessary source from which all existence emanates in an ordered hierarchy.
  • The virtuous city is ruled by one who unites philosophical wisdom with the ability to guide others.
  • Prophecy conveys through imagination and symbol the truths philosophy grasps through demonstration.
  • Logic is a universal grammar of thought, distinct from the grammar of any one language.

Major works

  • Mabādiʾ ārāʾ ahl al-madīna al-fāḍila (The Principles of the Opinions of the People of the Virtuous City)
  • Kitāb al-Siyāsa al-madaniyya (The Political Regime)
  • Iḥṣāʾ al-ʿulūm (The Enumeration of the Sciences)
  • Kitāb al-Mūsīqā al-kabīr (The Great Book of Music)

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