Alfarabius on What Practical Wisdom Is and its Position in the Classification of Sciences

As one branch of philosophy in general, practical wisdom serves significant functions in the course of acts and man’s individual and social due life and the foundation of governmental system and Islamic civilization. So, it is quite important to perfectly know the nature and characteristics of practical wisdom. One way of knowing different disciplines of science and their characteristics is to consider the system of classification and its criteria. Alfarabius is among those philosophers who have dealt with practical wisdom in much detail. In Alfarabius’ view, the consideration of the role of practical wisdom in the classification of sciences and its particular characteristics in contrast to general characteristics of philosophy help propose an inclusive and exclusive definition of it. Accordingly, practical wisdom is a speculative -deductive and demonstrative- discipline of knowledge dealing with issues of man’s free will in so far as it leads man to happiness or eternal affliction.