Al-Fârâbî argues directly that true philosophy “was handed down to us from the Greeks from Plato and Aristotle alone”. According to Al-Fârâbî, human beings collaborate as societies “in order to preserve [themselves] and to attain [their] highest perfections”. Without this, he emphasizes, “man cannot attain the perfection, for the sake of which his inborn nature [fitra] has been given to him”. In function of their size, associations can or cannot furnish the basis for a “perfect [kâmil] society”.

This way of perfection attributes a goal to society, namely, true felicity (sa‘âdah). On Al-Fârâbî’s view, a city “… in which people aim through association at cooperating for the things by which felicity in its real and true sense can be attained, is the virtuous city [madina fâdıla], and the society in which there is a cooperation to acquire felicity is the virtuous society [ijtima‘ fâdıl]”.

Al-Fârâbî also shares with Aristotle the claim that attaining the highest possible degree of perfection entails happiness; moreover, happiness is one of the key concepts of his thought. Al-Fârâbî’s conception of happiness is rather different from that of Aristotle’s notion of eudaimonia, because ultimate happiness, for Al-Fârâbî, is a state associated with the afterlife, when, the soul has separated from the body-regarding his conception of the soul. But how is ultimate happiness attained? Al-Fârâbî proposes an answer in line with the Ancient Greek thought; pointing out to a faculty which provides human beings with provision on one hand, and, basically formats reason on the other.

As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is D. According to Al-Fârâbî, human beings collaborate as societies “in order to preserve [themselves] and to attain [their] highest perfections. On Al-Fârâbî’s view, the society in which there is a cooperation to acquire felicity is the virtuous society. Al-Fârâbî also shares with Aristotle the claim that attaining the highest possible degree of perfection entails happiness but Al-Fârâbî’s conception of happiness is rather different from that of Aristotle’s notion of eudaimonia, because ultimate happiness, for Al-Fârâbî, is a state associated with the afterlife, when, the soul has separated from the body-regarding his conception of the soul.