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    Journals Viv 8 1 Article-P1 1-Preview

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    Plato and

    Alfarabi

    A Comparison of Some Aspects of Their Political Philosophies

    FAROLI K A. SANKARI

    his paper seeks to answer the following question: What are some
    of the parallels between Alfarabi's and Plato's positions regarding
    political philosophy in general, and the ideal state and the ruler,
    in particular ? 2
    I have tried, so far as I have been able, to trace the Platonic sources
    of certain aspects of Alfarabi's political philosophy. This process has
    revealed that some elements are all Platonic but that Alfarabi has
    elaborated them, in some instances has refined them, and, above all,
    has woven them together for the first time in the history of Islamic
    thought in order to suit the Islamic ordinance. This study has also
    revealed that certain elements in Alfarabi's political philosophy seem
    to be a development original to him and have no counterpart in Plato.
    Alfarabi's political philosophy, like classical political philosophy,
    starts with ends. It examines how men live and what they are, and it
    takes its bearings by how men ought to live, and how they ought to be.i
    Alfarabi tells us that man is a social and political animal "and by
    nature each man has to be bound with other men in everything he
    seeks. He, therefore, needs to associate with his kind and for this
    reason he is called the social or political animal."2 He must, therefore,
    combine with others in communities: "Man belongs to the species
    that cannot accomplish their necessary affairs or achieve their best
    state, except through the association of many groups of them in a single
    dwelling. "3 This notion reminds us of Plato's view of man's needs and
    the state:

    ... so, having all these needs, we call on one another's help to satisfy our various

    I Alfarabi,Almadinah Alfadilah,Cairo, 1948,pp. 102-103.


    2 Alfarabi,"Tahsilal-Sa'adah,"Rasa'ilAlfarabi,Hyderabad,i 34s A.H., p. i 6.
    3 Alfarabi,ThePoliticalRegime,translatedfrom the Arabicby MuhsimMahdiin : Medieval
    Political
    Glencoe,1963,p. 32.
    Philosophy,
    I
    requirements; and when we have called a number of helpers and associates to
    live together in one place, we call that a statue.1

    Alfarabi subdivides communities into varous sizes:


    Some human societies are large, others are of medium size, still others are small.
    The large societies consist of many nations that associate and cooperate with
    one another; the medium ones consist of a nation; the small are the ones embraced
    by the city. These three are the perfect societies. Hence the city represents the
    first degree of perfection.2

    Here we observe certain parallelisms between Alfarabi and Plato.


    Alfarabi's theory of association corresponds, with qualifications, to
    Plato's polis. However, Alfarabi went a step further than Plato and
    talked about a large association comprising the whole world and the
    middle-sized nation. This may well be due to Alfarabi's Islamic en-
    vironment ; it agrees with the universalism of Islam as a way of life.
    Alfarabi adds, in Almadinah Alfadilah, that the first association in which
    the highest good and the utmost perfection attainable is the city-state,
    not a smaller political unit. Since man is guided by free will and choice,
    true happiness is attainable only in the ideal state (almadinah alfadilah).3 3
    For only in it do men help each other in promoting good rather than
    evil.4
    Plato's views on division of labor based on man's natural aptitude
    can be traced in Alfarabi's emphasis on the need of many people, who
    must work together each according to his ability in order to satisfy
    one another's needs. Plato expresses this view in the Republic :
    You remember how, when we first began to establish our commonwealth and
    several times since, we have laid down, as a universal principle, that everyone
    ought to perform the one function in the community for which his nature best
    suited him.s

    Alfarabi's emphasis on cooperation and division of labor is shown in


    the following passage:
    The city and the household are each composed of different parts of a determinate
    number, some less, some more excellent, adjacent to each other and graded in
    different grades, each doing a certain work independently, and there is combined
    from their actions mutual help towards the perfection of the aim in the city or
    households.6

    I SeeF. M. Comford,TheRepublic of Plato(Oxfordetc.29 19 6 S),


    II, 367E,p. g6.
    2 Mahdi,sjyasahAlmadanjyah,in: Medieval PoliticalPhilosophy,
    Glencoe, 19 6 3,
    p. 3 2.
    3 Alfarabidistinguishesbetweentrue happinessand imaginaryhappiness.
    4 AlmadinahAlfadilah,p. 97.
    s Republic,
    XII, 433A, p. i 27.
    6 Alfarabi,FusulAlmadani,edited and translatedby D. M. Dunlop, Cambridge,ig6i, p. 37.

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