Social Trust System: An Approach in the Modernization of the Farabian Virtuous City

This research aims to investigate the potential for reutilizing utopian cities like the Farabian Virtuous City based on the requirements and capabilities of modernity. The study's primary question is whether these utopian cities retain their utopian potential despite the profound transformations of modernity or if their utopian effectiveness can be reinstated through changes. The reinterpretation of these utopian cities is pivotal for aligning vast political, cultural, social, economic, and religious systems toward Islamic goals and ideals. In this study, utilizing the dialectical method, the Farabian Virtuous City is scrutinized in two dimensions: requirements and consequences, based on the principles of modernity. Subsequently, employing the content analysis approach, the comprehensive theme of the "Social Trust System" is extracted as the primary approach in the modernization of the Farabian Virtuous City. The following steps were taken in the process: (a) designing matrices of requirements and consequences, (b) extracting and refining concepts and consequence propositions in the consequence matrix (38 propositions as basic statements), (c) extracting and refining requirements (27 requirements as basic statements), (d) extracting six organizing concepts, (e) extracting the comprehensive theme. According to Farabi's teachings regarding the utopian city, the primary foundation for realizing the utopian city is justice. The central axis of social justice is the government of the virtuous or the wise. The wise should be trained from the beginning or selected from individuals who have previously attained this level of virtue. In either case, a system is needed to record and retrieve their performance and capabilities, which can be realized in the "Social Trust System." By establishing the social trust system in the Farabian Virtuous City, as the achievement of this research, a platform for public oversight of functions and a framework for social justice is provided, enhancing productivity and satisfaction in a mutually reinforcing manner.