Irony of the Self-Restrained Man
The self-restrained man forces himself to engage in the actions of a virtuous man in order to make himself become virtuous. Ironically, this effort is counterproductive; in his efforts to be virtuous, he is actually only being self-restrained, ensuring that he isn't the very thing he sets out to be.
Irony of Plato and Aristotle
Plato and Aristotle were famously at odds with one another during their lifetimes; despite the fact that Plato was Aristotle's mentor and instructor, the two eventually grew so separated by the differences in their philosophies that Aristotle went away and formed his own rival school of thought. Ironically, despite these extreme differences, Alfarabi claims in his work "The Harmonization of the Two Opinions of the Two Sages: Plato the Divine and Aristotle" that their philosophies were essentially compatible, at least about all the major issues.
Irony of Political Science
According to the very words used in its terminology, it seems that political science would be primarily concerned with politics. According to Alfarabi, however, it hardly even includes politics at all; it is instead the study of the nature of the human soul and of life as a whole, even branching out to include jurisprudence and dialectical theology.
Irony of Religion
By the very nature of religion, it seems that religion should be the overarching principles from which everything else derives meaning and by which other beliefs are measured and tested. Alfarabi, however, places religion lower than philosophy on this scale; philosophy is the measure by which religion is tested, and without philosophy, religion is meaningless.
Irony of "The Political Regime"
Alfarabi's work "The Political Regime" is highly structured, with two major parts of the book dealing with the nature of the universe and the nature of humanity respectively, with many smaller yet equally clear subdivisions within each of these two headings. Ironically, Alfarabi did not include any actual divisions in his work - it's just one long manuscript flowing from start to finish. There isn't even a structural division between the two major parts; the editor had to insert that as well as all the others.
