Al-Farabi: biography. Philosophy of the Eastern thinker

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:53

The Arab scientists of antiquity, who left behind a great scientific and creative heritage, are also honored in the modern world. Perhaps some of their views and concepts seem outdated today, but at one time they directed people towards science and enlightenment. Al-Farabi was one of such great scientists. His biography originates in the city of Farab (the territory of modern Kazakhstan) in 872.

The life of a great philosopher

Abu Nasr Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Tarkhan ibn Uzlag, known to the whole world as Al-Farabi, lived a long life, leaving behind numerous works on philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, music and natural sciences.

Contemporaries called this great man the second teacher, implying that Aristotle was the first. The biography of Al-Farabi provides very scarce information, since no one paid attention to this during the life of the scientist, and all the available data were collected bit by bit a couple of centuries after his death.

Know for sure:

• He was born in the city of Farab in 870 (according to some sources, in 872). A fairly large city was located near the place where the Syr Darya and Arys are connected. Later, the settlement was renamed Otrar, and today its ruins can be seen in the south of Kazakhstan in the Otrar region.
• The father of the future philosopher and scientist was a respected commander in the city from an ancient Turkic family.
• While still a young man, Abu Nasr Al-Farabi, whose biography is silent about his childhood years, shied away from secular receptions and spent a lot of time studying the works of Aristotle and Plato.
• For some time he lived in Bukhara, Samarkand and Shash, where he studied and worked at the same time.
• Al-Farabi (the biography tells about this in more detail) decided to finish his education in Baghdad. At that time it was the capital of the Arab Caliphate and a major cultural and scientific center.
• On the way to Baghdad, the young scientist, whose level of knowledge at that time can be called encyclopedic, visited cities such as Isfahan, Hamadan and Reyu (modern Tehran).
• Arriving in the capital in 908, Al-Farabi (the biography does not provide more accurate data) studies logic, medicine, natural science, Greek, but it is not known which teachers.
• Having lived in Baghdad until 932, he left it, having already become a fairly well-known scientist.

Life in Damascus and world fame

The move was the impetus for the further development of the philosophical and scientific talents of the scientist, but there is almost nothing about his personal life at that timeknown.

• In 941, the philosopher moved to Damascus, where no one knew anything about him. The first years in this city were quite difficult, as he had to work in the garden and write his great treatises at night.
• At one time, Abu Nasir Al-Farabi (the biography does not indicate exact dates) visited Syria, where he had a patron, Sayf ad-Dawla Ali Hamdani, who helped many scientists and artists of that time.
• It is known that in 949 the scientist was in Egypt.
• There are 2 versions of how the great philosopher died. Some sources say that he died of natural causes at the age of 80, according to others he was robbed and killed on the way to Ascalan.

Such was the life of Abu Nasr Al-Farabi, whose brief biography does not convey the fullness of his greatness, which cannot be said about his works.

Scientific approach to learning

Al-Farabi's mind was arranged in such a way (the biography does not tell about this), which could cover several scientific directions at once for their study and development. He was versed in many sciences known during the Middle Ages and excelled in all of them.

His activity began with the study of the works of the great Greek sages. Giving comments to them, he tried to bring their thoughts in simple language to a wide range of people. Sometimes for this he had to state all this in his own words. Another scientific method used by Al-Farabi is the analysis of the great treatises of antiquity with a detailed presentation of their content. This can be determined from the manuscripts, wherean Arab scientist left his notes, which can be conditionally divided into 3 types:

• A lengthy commentary based on the saying of an ancient sage with a detailed explanation of what the author wanted to say. Such work was carried out with each chapter or section of the treatise.
• Average commentary, in which only the first phrases of the original were taken, and everything else was Al-Farabi's explanation. The biography of the scientist does not convey the essence of this work.
• A small commentary is the presentation of ancient works on my own behalf. At the same time, Al-Farabi could combine several works of Aristotle or Plato at once in order to convey to the students the meaning of their philosophy.

Studying and commenting on these works not only contributed to their promotion to the broad masses of people, but also directed the thoughts of the Arab scholar to further reflection on these philosophical issues.

Contribution to the development of sciences

Thanks to Al-Farabi, a new direction in the development of sciences and arts of that time began. His works are known in such disciplines as philosophy, music, astronomy, mathematics, logic, natural sciences, philology and others. His scientific works influenced such medieval scholars as Ibn Sina, Ibn Baja, Ibn Rushd and others. To date, about 130 works of the scientist are known, he is also credited with organizing and creating a library in Otrar.

The biography of Al-Farabi in Russian indicates that he was able to study and comment on almost all the works of Aristotle, as well as suchwise men like Ptolemy (“Almagest”), Alexander of Aphrodesia (“On the Soul”) and Euclid (“Geometry)”. Although the ancient Greek treatises influenced the development of the philosophical and scientific thought of Al-Farabi, most of his works are his mental research and practical experiments.

Philosophical works of Al-Farabi

All scientific works of an Arab scientist can be divided into several types:

• General philosophical works that were devoted to the laws of the universe, their properties and categories.
• Works that de alt with aspects of human activity and ways of knowing the world.
• Treats about matter, the study of its properties, as well as such categories as time and space. These include works in mathematics, geometry, and astronomy.
• Separate works (al-Farabi's biography mentions this) are devoted to the types and properties of wildlife and its laws. This includes works on human activities in biology, physics, chemistry, medicine and optics.
• The scientist paid special attention to the study of socio-political systems, issues of morality and education, pedagogy, public administration and ethics.

During his 80 years of life, Al-Farabi left a great legacy that was ahead of its time in many ways. His work has not ceased to be relevant in our time.

The basis of being according to the teachings of Al-Farabi

The great scientist laid the foundations of a new philosophy, according to which everything that exists in the world is divided into 6 steps, interconnected by cause and effectrelationship:

• The first step is the root cause of the appearance of all things, why and by whom everything was conceived.
• The second is the appearance of everything.
• The third stage is an active and developing mind.
• The fourth is the soul.
• The fifth step is form.
• Sixth - matter.

These steps underlie everything that surrounds a person, and the scientist divides them into 2 types:

• Things and states that he called "possibly existing", since their nature is not always caused by the necessity of their existence.
• The latter, on the contrary, always exist on their own and are called “necessarily existing”.

The root cause of everything Al-Farabi (a brief biography and acquaintance with his works indicate this) called God, since only he has integrity and uniqueness, while the other steps have plurality.

The second reason is the emergence of planets and other celestial bodies, which by their nature are different from earthly forms. Al-Farabi determined the third step to the cosmic mind, which takes care of wildlife and seeks to bring the world to perfection.

The last 3 steps are connected with our world, and the scientist paid close attention to them. He separated the functions of God from what happens in the material world, thereby limiting his intervention in people's lives, giving them free will. He was able to affirm the power of matter, endowing it with eternity.

Relationship between form and matter

The scientist paid a lot of attention to the relationship between form and matter. For example, he gives an interpretation of the form asthe integrity of the structure, and matter - as the essence and foundation of all things. It was he who pointed out that the form can exist only due to the presence of matter and cannot be outside the body. Matter, in turn, is a substrate, which must necessarily be filled with content (form). The great scientist writes about this in his works “On Matter and Form” and in the “Treatise on the Views of the Inhabitants of a Virtuous City”.

God

Al-Farabi's attitude to God was rather scientific than religious. Many followers of the scientist, and then religious Arab figures, claimed that he was a true Muslim who honored the traditions of Islam. But the writings of the sage say that he tried to know God, and not blindly believe in him.

No wonder a scientist of this level was buried without participation in the procession of the clergy. Al-Farabi's statements about the structure of the world and all things were too bold.

Teaching about the ideal city-state

The scientist paid a lot of attention to such aspects of life as happiness, morality, war and public policy. He dedicated the following works to them:

• “Treatise on Achieving Happiness”;
• “Ways of Happiness”;
• “Treatise on War and Peaceful Life”;
• “Treatise on the Views of the Residents of a Virtuous City”;
• “Civil Politics”;
• “A Treatise on the Study of Society”;
• “About virtuous morals.”

All of them touch upon such important aspects during the cruel Middle Ages as love for one's neighbor, immoralitywars and people's natural desire for happiness.

If we combine these works, we can draw the following conclusion from the author's philosophy: people should live in a world of goodness and justice, striving for spiritual development and scientific enlightenment. He came up with a city in which management is under the guidance of sages and philosophers, and its inhabitants do good and condemn evil. In contrast to this ideal society, the author describes cities where envy, the desire for we alth and lack of spirituality rule. For their time, these were quite bold political and moral views.

About music

Being talented in everything, Al-Farabi (a biography in Kazakh confirms this) devoted a lot of time to musicology. So, he gave the concept of musical sounds, described their nature and found out from what categories and elements any piece of music is built.

It took learning and writing music to the next level. He introduced other peoples to the music of the East, leaving behind the treatises “The Word about Music” and “On the Classification of Rhythms”. Unlike the Pythagorean school, according to which hearing did not matter for distinguishing sounds, and the main thing in this was calculations, Al-Farabi believed that it was hearing that allowed us to identify sounds and combine them into harmony.

Teaching about knowledge

One of the important aspects of the scientist's work is the study of such a category as the mind and the form of knowledge. He talks about where knowledge came from, about its connection with reality, about how a person cognizes reality. For example,Al-Farabi considered nature an object for study, since people receive all knowledge from the outside, observing the world around them. Comparing the various properties of things and phenomena, analyzing them, a person gains understanding.

So the sciences were formed, thanks to which people began to understand the world around them more deeply. He talks about the spiritual forces of a person, that is, about the structure of his psyche, about how people perceive smells, distinguish colors and feel various emotions. These are works that are very deep in their content, including “The Basis of Wisdom”, where the author considers such categories as likes and dislikes, as well as the reasons for their occurrence.

Logic as a form of knowledge

The scientist paid much attention to such a science as logic. He considered it a special property of the mind, the presence of which helped a person to judge the truth and assert it experimentally. The art of logic according to Al-Farabi is the ability to separate false categories from true ones with the help of evidence, which was not at all characteristic of religious dogmas and beliefs.

Scholars of the East and other countries supported his works "Introduction to Logic" and "Introductory Treatise on Logic". Logic is a tool with which people can gain knowledge about the surrounding reality. So thought the great scientist.

Memory of the great scientist

In our time, not only the Arab world, but the entire scientific world honors the memory of such a great man. For example, there is a biography in Kazakh about Al-Farabi, streets of cities are dedicated to him and names of universities are given. in Almaty andMonuments were erected in Turkestan, and in 1975 the 1100th anniversary of the birth of Al-Farabi was widely celebrated. Biography (Kazaksha) does not convey the greatness of the wisdom of this man.