Al Farabi is a great philosopher

An outstanding thinker and scientist-encyclopedist of the Middle Ages Abu Nasr Muhammad ibn Muhammad Uzlug Tarkhan al Farobi was born in 873 in the family of a noble commander. This is indicated by the Cunja «Tarhan» in his name, and the other by Farobi - indicates the origin of the city of Faroob, the city located at the confluence of the Arys River in the Syr Darya. After completing his studies at the Madrasahs of Bukhara and Samarkand, he went to Merv, Isfahan, Hamadan, and Rei for his knowledge. He studied in Khorasan and arrived in Baghdad, having a solid stock of knowledge and experience. The efforts of the young curious person were rewarded: he was accepted into the «House of Wisdom» founded by the Caliph Mamun – «Beit ul-hikmu». Here he studied the writings of the figures of the Academy of Mamun, the ancient Greek scholars.

It will be a long time before the student turns into a scholarly husband, and the library «Beit ul-hikma» replenishes his treatises on mathematics and astronomy, medicine and psychology, logic and sociology, music theory and ethics, philosophy and law.

For half a century, Farobi created more than 200 tracts, many of which, unfortunately, are lost. With his goal of learning the true Aristotle, he wrote his comments on the works of the great Greek and other scholars. «I understood Aristotle's Metaphysics only after reading Al-Farobi's comments on her,» Abu Ali ibn Sina later wrote.

In his treatise «The Essence of Questions», Farobi opposes Plato, who considered the soul primary and preceding the body. «The soul,» wrote Farobi, «can not exist before the body, as Plato asserts.» The soul arises simultaneously with the body, there can not be two souls in one body, and it can not be moved from one body to another. The state of the body affects the state of the soul. To maintain the normal state of the soul and perform its functions, a healthy body is needed.

The scientist claimed the eternity of the soul, believing that it does not die with the body, but remains eternally alive. He believed that although the body decomposes, the soul does not disappear, it goes away into eternity and never returns and does not reincarnate. Leaving the body of a person, the soul unites with the same other souls, and all the spiritual acquired by them, uniting the world soul, unites. Immortal souls of virtuous and knowledgeable people, while souls of ignorant people are mortal.

Speaking against the teachings of Plato about the soul, al-Farobi makes an attempt to protect the foundations of the materialist theory of reflection, correctly explaining the essence of the process of development of mental life. In some ways criticizing Aristotle, he relies in his teaching on the views of the ancient Greek philosopher about the full possibility of man's knowledge of the external world. Farobi, in contrast to Aristotle, tends to believe that the brain participates in some degree in the management of a person's mental activity, that is, emphasizes the dependence of mental forces on the body. The teaching of al-Farobi about the cognitive processes of man played a significant role in the era of the early Middle Ages and contributed to the liberation of science from the influence of religion, as well as the development of the materialist doctrine of the human psyche.

Thanks to tireless work on the path to knowledge, the power of thought and moral height, al-Farobi took the leading place in the scholarly world of his time. «Al-Mu'allim as-sony», called him, which means – «Second Teacher» (the first was Aristotle). And he was also nicknamed Arasto East - Aristotle of the East.

Based on the study of classical philosophy and his own natural scientific research, Farobi wrote works touching almost all aspects of philosophy, the «Pearl of Wisdom» (a summary of his teaching), treatises «Substance», «Vacuum», «Time» «On the unity of the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle»; work on logic, on ethics – «Instructions on the path to happiness», «Achievement of happiness»; on politics and sociology – «Politics of the city», «Views of the inhabitants of a virtuous city»; on psychology – «On the soul», «On the power of the soul». In his «Great Book of Music», Farobi introduced the theory of music, substantiating the mathematical principles of the harmony of musical sounds, leading an undeniable proof base of the rhythmic foundations of oriental music. A man globally thought, he summarized in it the achievements of Arab, Persian, Greek, Indian and Turkic cultures. A humanist scholar, who traced the similarity of various cultural traditions, in another treatise – «The Word on the Classification of Sciences» - he acts as a reformer of science, seeking to systematize the knowledge of his time. Gives a detailed classification of science, highlighting the science of language, grammar, logic, poetics, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, natural sciences and metaphysics, politics, law, ethics, pedagogy and others.

In the «Aphorisms of a statesman,» in «Civil Policy,» the essay «On the Achievement of Happiness», the scientist appears as a reformer of pedagogy, striving to bring knowledge to the people, to connect education and upbringing in the people of humanity.

Used sources:

• 1.    Гафуров Б. Г., Касымжанов А. Х. Ал-Фараби в истории культуры. М., 1975.

• 2.    Даукеева С. Философия музыки Абу Насра Мухаммада аль-Фараби. Алматы: Фонд Сорос — Казахстан, 2002. — 352 с. — ISBN 9965-13 819-2.

• 3.     Касымжанов А. Х. Абу-Наср аль-Фараби. М.: Мысль, 1982.

"Экономика и социум" №2 (45) 2018