Analysis of Educational ideas of Farabi, the Founder of Islamic Philosophy

Education has always been one of the greatest philosophical issues ever discussed. Among the great philosophers of education, there are ones who have comprehensively considered impression, objectives, principles, methods and the necessity of this important process. One of these great philosophers is Farabi who is named the second teacher and known as the father of Islamic philosophy. This study reviews and compares his educational views and opinions. To achieve this important goal, the research method of qualitative content analysis has been used. Information was collected by using a library method and then was analyzed through applying the inductive categorization system. Results indicate that Farabi considers the purpose of creation to achieve perfection and bliss. Bliss is not possible unless through acquisition of excellences education. Consequently, this great mentor regards the education as an essential core issue and in the process of educating the people. He considers an important role for both the society's and the humankind’s will and choice. In addition, Farabi believes that the human's soul and sprit should be directed to cognition of truth and beauty, so they view the ultimate purpose of education in gaining the good idea and knowing the God. In connection with the educational implications, the viewpoint of this teacher is that he believes education goals including physical, chimerical, moral, intellectual and social objectives... From Farabi viewpoint, the course content directs the human towards cognition of God, closeness to God, trust in him, follow his instructions and then leads to cognition of the human himself as the God's creature and caused. On the teaching approach, Farabi focuses on the two persuasive and argumentative methods.