Al-farabi's philosophy of education

AL-Farabi:

Al-Farabi was born in a noble family of Farab in Turkestan, in 870 AD. His father had Persian origin was an army commander at the Turkish court. In search of knowledge and education. Al-Farabi  in his metaphysical thought tried to combine Platonic and Aristotelian thoughts and focused on the topics like the First Being or God, the emanation and hierarchy of beings, and the internal structure of beings.

The First Being that gives existence to all other substances is the highest being. Al-Farabi describes Aristotle’s concept about God as “self-thinking thought”, who takes God primarily as Intellect whose primary operation is the contemplation of him. God knows both himself and all other things in the most perfect manners. As a result of God’s intellectual activity He becomes by way of emanation the cause for the existence of other beings. The existences of the other things that are created by First being depend upon Him. These are not qualitatively different from God’s existence. He exists in his substance. These are heavenly bodies, rational animals, non-rational animals, plants, minerals, and four elements. The emanated being is created directly by the First Being. The secondary intellect consists of nine others as well as the active intellect.

 aim of education

·         In al-Farabi’s philosophical system, education is one of the most important social phenomena. It deals with the human soul and ensures that the individual is being prepared from an early age to become a beneficial member of the society. (rauf, 2013)

·          Indeed al-Farabi’s view, the whole activity of education can be briefed up as the acquisition of values, knowledge and practical skills in a particular period and culture

·          Al farabi believes that The aim of education is to guide the individual towards perfection because the human being was created for this purpose. The existence of humanity in this world is to gain happiness which is the absolute good and also the highest perfection.

·         According farabi , the perfect human being (al insan al kamil) is he who has theoretical virtue, intellectual knowledge and practical moral values, becoming perfect in his moral behavior. Then, crowning these theoretical and moral virtues with effective power.

·         Al Farabi combines moral and aesthetic values like good are beautiful, and beauty is good. The beautiful is that which is valued by the scholars. So the perfection he expects from education is to gain knowledge and good behavior. (rauf, 2013)

·         In Al-Farabi’s view, education is the combination of learning with practical action. The purpose of knowledge is to apply it.

·         The practical sciences are those which are linked to readiness for action and absolute perfection is what the human being achieves through knowledge and action applied together. (rauf, 2013)

Role of teacher:

·         According to Al-Farabi  the teacher  should have morality and learning conditions. The teacher  has to bear a good character and seeks truth in all conditions.

·         The teaching profession should be adopted voluntarily without any obligation. Exception may be there but only in cases of absolute necessity.

·         Teacher should meet : mastery over his art (his specialization) and its rules.

·         Teacher must has the ability to demonstrate whatever is possible to demonstrate. He should have the ability to make others comprehend whatever he knows and the ability to guard against any shortcoming which might enter his art. (rauf, 2013)

Methods and cirruculum:

·         AL-farabi was the first philosopher who classified the sciences and learning .

·         Al farabi believes that the education must start with the language and its structure. The student may express himself like the people who speak that language. Without this ability, he will not be able to understand people nor they him. (rauf, 2013)

·         Al farabi believes that next to languages comes logic, which is the the instrument of the sciences and their methodology. It gives sound reflection to science. It is also closely related to language.

·          Al farabi believes that Mathematics and arithmetic is one of the basic tools to study the optics, astronomy and the natural sciences. Al-Farabi divides mathematics into seven parts: numbers (arithmetic), geometry, the science of perspectives, scientific astronomy (contrasted with astrology), music, dynamics and the science of machines. (rauf, 2013).

In short, al-Farabi’s curriculum is a group of sciences, graded as follows: science of language, logic, the ‘teachings’ (mathematics), natural science, theology, civics (political science), jurisprudence and academic theology. In his opinion, there is link between the natural sciences and theology.

·         Al-Farabi mentioned another theory that was taken by the followers of Theophrastus. According to this theory education begins with reforming the morals, ‘for he who cannot reform his own morals cannot learn any science correctly (rauf, 2013)

·         Al-Farabi mentioned another theory that was taken by the followers of Theophrastus. According to this theory education begins with reforming the morals, ‘for he who cannot reform his own morals cannot learn any science correctly.

    Role of students :

·         Learners in the field of study must be examined the learner should be tested to know the level of his learning.

·         A learner must also test himself to know if he has made a quantitative or methodological mistake. For this purpose, instruments are made available to help us check the compass, the ruler, the scales, the abacus, astronomic summary tables, etc.

·          Students must Understand the relationship between isolated pieces of information and grasping the links between them is Mathematical ability which is one of the important way of recognizing intelligence.

reference:

rauf, D. m. (2013). al farabi's philosophy of education. educational research international , vol 1.

researchgate. (2017).