The position of power in Islamic thought and the modern state:A case study of Farabi and Foucault

Power, as one of the important components of civil affairs, has generally been the subject of the theoretical reflections of most political and social philosophers; The question of what and how power and its origin and legitimacy have been considered in these theoretical reflections. In this regard, the main question of this research is what is the position of power in Islamic thought and the modern state. For this purpose, this research has compared two thinkers from two different civilizations and times. The hypothesis of the research is that although the concept of power has a significant place in the epistemological system of these two thinkers, the type of approach and the way of conceptual processing is a function of the different thought bases of the two. According to the Platonic-Aristotelian basis of his philosophy, the end of power in Farabi's utopia political system is true happiness, and in the non-ideal political system it is conquest. While for Foucault, power has a social nature and it analyzes the relationships and the network of different social relationships at all levels, rather than being directed towards civil ends; And it also deals with its systematic alternative, resistance. However, in Farabi's thought, a kind of resistance is proposed in the theory of succession, which, although it is negative for him, can be read in the context of a critical reading approach. The method of interpretative research and data collection was library and documentary.