The Role of Language in Fārābī Civil Science (Political Science)

Theories of the social sciences, after the development of philosophical linguistics in the twentieth century and the emergence and evolution of the schools of linguistic analysis, have also been proposed in relation to “language” and are also known as cultural theory in terms of symbolic linguistic meanings. However, Abū Naṣr al-Fārābī (Arabic: ابو نصر الفارابی) defines civil science (political science) as a social theory about civic and followers and on the other hand, in the section of ʿIlm al-lisān (Arabic: علم اللسان) of the book of Iḥṣāʾ al-ʿUlūm (Arabic: إحصاء العلوم) and he explains civic and communities (Arabic: امم و مدن) in relation to language and the evolution of linguistic industries in more detail especially in chapter two of Kitāb al-Ḥurūf (Arabic: کتاب الحروف). The following research is an analysis of the relation between language, community and city (polis) in Fārābī philosophy and Fārābī’s explanation of civil science (political science) and the characteristics of cities and communities (ummahs) is expressed from his point of view in this article and then, the relationship between language, communities and cities in Fārābī’s view has been discussed. The result of this research is that Fārābī relates and links the evolution of communities with the development of linguistic techniques and arts and at some stage of development of linguistic techniques emphasizes the relationship between philosophy and religion and he uses the word nation (Arabic: مله) instead of Ummah (Arabic: امه) consequently.