The Concept of Happiness as an Ethical and Aesthetic Problem in the Philosophy of al-Farabi

The attitude towards the concept of happiness has been constantly changing since ancient times, depending on the views of human beings and the periods. The question of the possibility or impossibility of achieving happiness and its connection with virtue has also aroused the interest of philosophers. For this reason, despite being at the center of philosophers’ views of happiness as an ethical issue, it has been considered from different aspects. It can be seen that al-Farabi, one of the medieval Islamic philosophers, also focused on the importance of happiness as a concept and raised it as an ethical, political, and aesthetic issue. In this article, the concept of happiness will be discussed as ethical aesthetic issues based on the works of al-Farabi.