In Abū Bakr ibn al-Saʿigh ibn Bājja, the first Muslim philosopher in the West, we meet with a different approach to Plato and his political philosophy. For Avempace, to give him the name by which he was known to the Scholastics and to modern students of philosophy, is exclusively interested in the individual thinker's perfection and happiness. He sees this in the union (or, more correctly translated, the contact) of the human with the Active Intellect, which is the highest stage before the mystical contemplation of God, Political science concerns him only as it affects the philosopher; the qualities of the ruler, law as the basis of government, the happiness of the community, the various political constitutions and their transformation are not the object of his study. He knows of Plato's ideal state and that it helps the individual seeker after Truth to attain his goal, whereas the imperfect states hinder him. But, unlike his predecessors Al-Fārābī and Ibn Sīnā, and unlike Ibn Rushd after him, he does not admit that the highest human perfection and ultimate happiness are possible only in the ideal state. The quest for happiness has precedence over state and society. If necessary, man must isolate himself from society and concentrate on the self-knowledge which will lead him to the perception of God, unaided by society and the prophetic law which guides it.

The other Falāsifa mentioned above acknowledged Plato and Aristotle as their masters in political philosophy and followed their authority with such modifications and adaptations as their Islamic environment required.