ABSTRACT
Al-Farabi was widely known as ‘the second master’, Aristotle being the first. He achieved high eminence as a logician and was also a physicist, metaphysician, astronomer and musician. He expounded Aristotelian logic for the Arab-speaking world and wrote detailed and comprehensive commentaries on both Plato and Aristotle. He worked to create a reconciliation of their two philosophies and a synthesis of philosophy and religion. The main thrust of his own thought takes its impetus largely from Aristotelian ideas and methods but also shows, like the work of other Arab philosophers of the time, the influence of Neo-Platonic ideas. AlFarabi is regarded as the founder of the Arab NeoPlatonism that culminated in the philosophy of Ibn Sina, known later in western philosophy as Avicenna. His work is significant for its emphasis on reason rather than revelation.
