Abstract

In view of the fact that philosophy and other intellectual sciences came in the Islamic civilization through translation of the Greek writings, there has always been a stain on the Islamic philosophy that it is no more than a mere translation of the Greek philosophy, and the Muslim philosophers have introduced no innovations in the form and content of it. Seeking to present the initiative in the field of social philosophy, the present article is going to compare the social opinions of Plato and Farabi, the two representatives of the Greek philosophy and the Islamic philosophy, and to show the resemblances and contrasts of their viewpoints. The respected reader will find out that although al-Farabi borrowed “the virtuous city” from Plato, the former’s sketching and analysis as well as his way of reasoning are strikingly different from the latter’s.