Al-Farabi in Education

Al-Farabi was known in the west as Alpharabius (between 14 December, 950 and 12 January, 951). He was a philosopher and wrote in the fields of political philosophy, metaphysics, ethics and logic. He was also a scientist, cosmologist, mathematician and music scholar. The second teacher he was called in the Islamic traditional, following Aristotle who was the first teacher.

Aims:

Education is one of the most important social phenomena according to Al-farabi. Education is to ensures that the individual is being prepared from an early age to become beneficial member of the society. It is to achieve his level of perfection to reach his goals in life. Also, his philosophical view was to combine separate concepts and thoughts into unified world view. According to Al-farabi, the perfect human being is he who has theoretical virtue, intellectual knowledge and practical moral values. So, education is the combination of learning with practical action, and the role of the knowledge is to know how to apply it.

Methods and Curriculum:

According to Al-farabi the learning must start with the language and its structure, so the student can express himself like the people who speak that language. Next to language comes logic, which the instrument of the science and their methodology. After language and logic comes mathematics. Al-farabi describes that in the hierarchy of the theoretical sciences, arithmetic comes first. Then comes measures and after that come the other things in which numbers and measures belong that is perspectives (optics).

Role of the Teacher:

Learning are important conditions for the teacher. He has to bear a good character and seeks truth in all conditions. The teaching profession should be adopted voluntarily without any obligation; expectation may be there but only in cases of absolute necessity. The other scientific and educational requirements a teacher should meet are: mastery over his art and its rules.