Sociology of Education

Part: 6The Contribution of

4- Ibn Rushd and 5- Al Farabi
Dr. Merah Souad
4- Ibn Rushd’s Contribution
 Ibn Rushd
(1058 – 1111)
• Abu al-Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn
Rushd, better known in the Latin West as
Averroes, lived during a unique period in
Western intellectual history, in the interest in
philosophy and theology was waning in the
Muslim world and just beginning to flourish in
Latin Christendom.
• He was a jurist and physician , he was
regarded as the final and most influential
Muslim philosopher, especially to those who
inherited the tradition of Muslim philosophy
in the West.
• Ibn Rushd was born in Cordova, Spain, to a family with
a long and well-respected tradition of legal and public
service. His grandfather, the influential Abdul-Walid
Muhammad (d. 1126), was the chief judge of Cordova,
under the Almoravid dynasty.
• Ibn Rushd’s education followed a traditional path,
beginning with studies in hadith, linguistics,
jurisprudence and scholastic theology. towards the law
and his life as a jurist.
• It is generally believed that Ibn Rushd was influenced
by the philosophy of Ibn Bajjah (Avempace), and
perhaps was once tutored by him
• His medical education was directed under Abu
Jafar ibn Harun of Trujillo. His aptitude for
medicine was noted by his contemporaries and
can be seen in his major enduring work Kitab al-
Kulyat fi al-Tibb(Generalities) This book, together
with Kitab al-Taisir fi al-Mudawat wa al-
Tadbir (Particularities) written by Abu Marwan
Ibn Zuhr, became the main medical textbooks for
physicians in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim
worlds for centuries to come.
• Medicine :Averroes wrote a medical encyclopedia called Kulliyat ).
In Optics Averroes followed Alhazen's incorrect explanation that
a Rainbow is due to reflection, not refraction.
• Physics: Averroes also authored three books on physics namely: Short
Commentary on the Physics, Middle Commentary on the Physics and Long
Commentary on the Physics. He also developed the notion that bodies
have a (non-gravitational) inherent resistance to motion into physics. This
idea in particular was adopted by Thomas Aquinas and subsequently by
Johannes Kepler, who referred to this fact as "Inertia".
• Astronomy: Regarding his studies in astronomy, Averroes argued for a
strictly concentric model of the universe, and explained sunspots and
scientific reasoning regarding the occasional opaque colours of the moon.
• Psychology : Averroes also made some studies regarding Active intellect
and Passive intellect, both of the following were formerly regarded
subjects of Psychology.
Philosophy : Three views in particular that put Ibn Rushd outside the
mainstream.
1- First, he contends that both philosophy and the text of the Qur’an point
toward the conclusion that the world has always existed in some form or
another—that although God has shaped the nature of creatures, the
physical world itself has eternally existed, just as God himself has.
2- Second, he contends that although our souls survive death, our bodies do
not, and will not be resurrected. He seems to believe that our souls will
acquire some kind of body in the next life, but he denies that this will be
the same body we have now, or even the same kind of body, and he
further denies that we should take literally the Qur’an’s various enticing
pronouncements about the garden of delights that awaits the believer.
3- Third, and most strange to our modern ears, he denies that we each
possess our own intellect. Instead, he thinks, the intellect is something
separate from our souls, some singular, immaterial thing that we are able
to access when we think, and that we all share.
 His works
• In the Muslim world, Ibn Rushd is known, above
all, for his Tahâfut al-Tahâfut al-Falâsifa (The
Collapse of Collapse of the Philosophers) and
Mabâdi ‘l-Falâsifah (The Beginning of
Philosophy). In Tahâfut al-Tahâfut, al-Falâsifah,
Ibn Rushd bitterly attacked Al-Ghazâlî’s - Tahâfut
al-Falâsifah (Self Destruction of the
Philosophers), a work in which the l2th century
theologian Al-Ghazâlî sought a strengthening of
piety by attacking the philosophers
 Ibn Rushd’s Educational Views
• Ibn Rushd explains that there are three types
of men:
1- the first and largest in number, is receptive to
ideas that can be expressed logically;
2- the second is amenable to persuasion and
3- the third, few in numbers, will only be
convinced by conclusive evidence.
He believed in :
1- The centrality of scriptural truth (Quranic
Truth) as a source of wisdom.
2- The priority of logic in learning and teaching.
3- The duty of learning from the past.
4- The idea that students and teachers should
enjoy academic freedom in the educational
process.
5- Al Farabi’s contribution
 Al Farabi (870-950)
• He is Abū Naṣr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad
Fārābī for known in the West as Alpharabius.
• He was a renowned scientist and philosopher
of the Islamic Golden Age.
• He was also a cosmologist, logician,
and musician, representing the
multidisciplinary approach of Muslim
scientists.
• He was 257/ad 870. (His origin and place of
birth have been based on hearsay).He may
rightly be acclaimed as one of the greatest of
Islamic philosophers of all time.
(http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ip/rep/
H021.htm)
• Al-Farabi became an expert in philosophy and logic,
and also in music: one of his works is entitled Kitab al-
musiqa al-kabir (The Great Book of Music).
• However, perhaps the book for which he is best known
is that whose title is abbreviated to al-Madina al-fadila
(The Virtuous City), and which is often compared,
misleadingly in view of its Neoplatonic orientation, to
Plato's Republic. Other major titles from al-Farabi's
voluminous corpus included the Risala fi'l-'aql (Epistle
on the Intellect), Kitab al-huruf (The Book of
Letters) and Kitab ihsa' al-'ulum (The Book of the
Enumeration of the Sciences).
 Al farabi’s Educational views
• In fact, education is one of the most important
social phenomena in al-Farabi's philosophical
system. It is concerned with the human soul
and makes sure that the individual is prepared
from an early age to become a member of
society. to achieve his own level of perfection,
and thus to reach the goal for which he was
created. (http://www.muslimheritage.com/article/al-farabis-
doctrine-education-between-philosophy-and-sociological-
theory#sec1)
• The perfect human being (al-insan al-kamil), thought al-
Farabi, is the one who has obtained theoretical virtue—
thus completing his intellectual knowledge—and has
acquired practical moral virtues—thus becoming perfect in
his moral behavior. Then, crowning these theoretical and
moral virtues with effective power, they are anchored in
the souls of individual members of the community .
• This perfection which he expects from education combines
knowledge and virtuous behavior.
• Theoretical and practical perfection can only be obtained
within society, for it is society that nurtures the individual
and prepares him to be free. If he were to live outside
society, he might only learn to be a wild animal.
• One of the aims of education is the formation of
political leaders, because ‘ignorance is more harmful in
monarchs than it is in the common people because,
the citizens have a real need for a leader who conducts
an acceptable policy, directing their affairs in a
praiseworthy manner and improving their situation.
• There is integration between the individual, the family
and the city in social life.
• The political leader, has the function of a doctor who
treats souls and his political skill is to the wellbeing of
the city while the physician's skill is to bodily health.
• Education, is necessary for every individual in the nation, since
without it nobody would be able to reach perfection and happiness
• Al-Farabi used a large number of technical terms to describe the
concept of education:
• Discipline (ta'dib) ,
• Correction/assessment (taqwim) ,
• Training (tahdhib),
• Guidance (tasdid),
• Instruction (ta'lim) ,
• Exercise or learning (irtiyad) ,
• Upbringing or education (tarbiya).
• Good manners or culture (adab),
• In his opinion, in their true educational meaning are the
‘combination of all the good qualities
• Al-Farabi believes that education is founded
upon the basis of the human being having
certain inborn aptitudes, which he calls
‘nature‘.
• Knowledge thus begins with the senses, then
becomes an intellectual conception by way of
imagination.
 Teaching Tips
• The method of instruction must be appropriate to the
level of the learners, depending on whether people
belong to the common people or the elite.
• The teacher , must be of good character, free from
cravings and seek only the truth.
• The student should possess three qualities:
a- he should be able to grasp concepts and understand
their meaning;
B- accept the existence of what he has grasped or
understood;
C- be able to describe what he has grasped and accepted.
• The student must always be most eager to learn
and study. (motivated)
• The value of learning languages.
• The habituation: the repetitive method is
appropriate for teaching ethics and practical arts.
This habituation takes place by persuasion and
affective speech, which establishes them in the
mind, so that the learners resolve to carry them
out voluntarily themselves.
• Al-Farabi gives imagination a clear
educational function, and makes ‘producing
an imaginative impression' one way of
instructing the common people in many of the
concepts that are hard for them to grasp.
• Understanding is better than memorization.
• proficiency in the arts
• to combine learning with practical action.
• there must be a supervision of education (the
ruler or philosopher who should be
responsible.)
• The first step in teaching something is to use the
correct name which signifies it. Then define it, and
explain the various parts of this definition, and likewise
explain its particular and general characteristics, so
that the former part of the latter.
• One may use illustrations of the object, and describe its
special features and its unusual features. It is also
possible to make it understood by resorting to
something that resembles it, or which can be
compared with it; and to use the method of
subdivision, induction, analogy and metaphor.
• Indeed, the whole activity of education, in al-Farabi's
view, can be summed up as the acquisition of values,
knowledge and practical skills by the individual, within
a particular period and a particular culture. The goal of
education is to lead the individual to perfection since
the human being was created for this purpose, and the
goal of humanity's existence in this world is to attain
happiness, which is the highest perfection—the
absolute good .
(http://www.muslimheritage.com/article/al-farabis-
doctrine-education-between-philosophy-and-
sociological-theory#sec1)