TITLE:
Alfarabi’s Conversion of Plato’s Republic
AUTHORS:
Mahmood N. Khoshnaw
KEYWORDS:
Alfarabi; Plato; Republic; Perfect State
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Literary Study,
Vol.2 No.1,
January
17,
2014
ABSTRACT: It might not be very inspiring to do an introduction to Alfarabi’s (870-950 A.D.) philosophy and works through his On the Perfect State. This is because of the obvious dependence and extensive borrowing from Plato’s Republic which might undermine the rich philosophy he presents in his other major and more known works. Besides, and similar to Plato, many of the philosophical views presented and raised in the On the Perfect State are detailed in his other works. Nonetheless, and as it will be shown below, he distinguished a number of his ideas from Plato and modelled them to suit his Islamic perspectives and audience. This article attempts to illustrate a number of Plato’s ideas that Alfarabi has remodelled.