The Role of Generally Accepted Premisses in Determining Communities from Al-Farabi and Avicenna's Viewpoints

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The present paper is dealing with the role of generally accepted  premissesin determining communities from Al-Farabi and Avicenna's point of view. Contemplating on cities in Farabi's works shows the role of the leaders' ultimate goals in determining policies and generally accepted  premisses in reaching those goals. Also, reviewing the communities' issues in Avicenna's works specially his considered city, one comes to this conclusion that cities' requirements are one of the factors in forming social goals. As a result of reaching these goals, some of the generally accepted   premisses are formed and some others are changed. Consequently, generally accepted premisses of every society are the reflections of that society's requirements and its leaders' goals. Practically, the well-known data include imaginations and persuasions, and all the three are accounted as the methods of transmitting universal truths. Surveying the issue of generally accepted premisses and these two philosophers' views led to this conclusion that generally accepted premisses are the effective factors on reaching goals, and as a result determining communities. Comparing the issue between the works of these two philosophers shows Al- Farabi arranged the cities in three levels and based on his anthropological thoughts, while Avicenna had a critical approach on the issue and was influenced by the policy of his own time.

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