Abu nasyr al- farabi

3. Al- Farabi 's contribution to science
The creative heritage of al- Farabi is very rich. It is believed that he is the author of 80 to 160 works. His books were very popular in the cities of the East (al- Farabi ’s commentary on Metaphysics Aristotle helped Ibn Cine comprehend the wisdom of the book Stagirita ). In 12-13 centuries. Many treatises of al- Farabi were translated into Hebrew and Latin. Farabi is considered one of the great Arab philosophers; he was nicknamed the “Second Teacher” (Aristotle was considered the first).
The themes of al- Farabi’s works are extensive. First of all, he was interested in the theoretical foundations of various sciences, their philosophical meaning. Al- Farabi ’s commentary work covered almost all the logical works of Aristotle, his Ethics , Rhetoric, Poetics Metaphysics, as well as the works of Ptolemy, Alexander of Aphrodisia , Euclid, Porphyry. Often these were not just explanations of ancient texts, but paraphrases, allowing their author to express his own ideas as if “on behalf of” an authoritative ancient scholar. Most of al- Farabi ’s works are his original essays on metaphysics, analysis of laws and categories of being, human cognitive activity, logic, understanding of the essence of mind, properties of the physical world, definition of the philosophical content of practical sciences. Significant place in the heritage of al- Farabi is occupied by works devoted to socio-political issues, such as the polity and management, ethics, pedagogy (civil policy, Treatise on the attainment of happiness, Aphorisms of state man Treatise on the views of the inhabitants of the virtuous city and etc.).
One of the important aspects of the work of al- Farabi is his historical and philosophical analysis of the ancient heritage. Of particular interest is the comparison of the teachings of Plato and Aristotle, to which he did not want to emphasize their difference, but rather the similarity, the commonness of the pursuit of truth, knowable from different sides.
Al- Farabi was the first of the eastern peripatetics who, in commentaries on Aristotle's writings on logic, dialectics, rhetoric, poetics and other treatises, defended the idea of ​​the superiority of philosophical ( apodeictic ) knowledge over other types of knowledge. Religious knowledge, based on rhetoric and poetry (on suggestion and imagery), is the most primitive knowledge, calculated on the undeveloped consciousness of the common people. Philosophy, based on rational proof, on logic, comes closest to the knowledge of truth, the essence of being, and opens up a way to happiness for a rational person who is close to an active mind, making his soul immortal. The same circumstance speaks in favor of the fact that the government, the state should be exercised by the government-philosopher, - then this state becomes a “virtuous city”, whose population, unlike the inhabitants of “vicious cities”, lives according to the law of justice, when everyone performs his the function assigned to it in the hierarchy system, which makes both society and people happy. One of the main practical tasks of the philosopher and the enlightened ruler is to create along with philosophy as an elitist, “esoteric” knowledge of the knowledge of the “exoteric” embodied in the “true religion”, shifting the single truth comprehended by philosophy to the language of symbols, images.
The picture of the state structure is similar to the general picture of the world order, drawn by al- Farabi . The ultimate foundation of the being of the world is Primordially, the One. This is the first reason that generates the world, which in possibility is already contained in the Primordial and through the process of emanation comes to light, unfolds, starting with the World mind, the World soul, the first matter, etc. and ending with the world of things. In turn, the world of things, starting with the inanimate nature, minerals, through evolutionary stages (plants, animals) reaches the top of development - a person with his rational soul. Arabic-speaking peripatetics, the highest authority for which Aristotle remained, perceived excerpts from the Ennead Plotinus translated into Arabic , known as Aristotle's Theology, as an authentic work of Stagirite . They tried to combine the emanation doctrine stated in it with peripateticism in order to create a coherent theory of a single origin, a candlestick (as an opportunity) to the world and the creation of the real world, which becomes necessary as a result of the realization of an opportunity. In the teachings of al- Farabi God (Primordially) and the world are inextricably linked. In the treatise Pearl of Wisdom, al- Farabi asserts that God is the same essence as the world, but an embodiment of unity; the world is the same essence as God, but expressed in a multitude. It is necessary that the original principle is the universe in the form of unity.
An essential point of the teachings of al- Farabi is the concept of soul and mind, which repeatedly emphasizes the unity of soul and body, the impossibility of the existence of a soul without a body. At the same time, noting the specific nature of the mind as a special non-bodily, non-material entity, al- Farabi believed that the human mind as a result of improvement, as a result of continuous human efforts, can free itself from the power of the body and avoid perishability. that it no longer needs for its existence in matter ... it combines with substances separated from matter, and thus exists forever. "