معرفت فلسفی

A Review and Investigation of Mulla Sadra’s Arguments for

Personal Unity of Existence

Murteza Rezaie (Assistant Professor in Imam khomeini Educational and Research Institute)

ABSTRACT

The theory of “personal unity of existence” with its mystical lineage was accepted by Mulla Sadra and applied in his philosophical system. In the light of this theory, many ontological discussions find a special explanation. Anyway, after depicting this theory, the next step is to prove the rightness of this view of existence. The mystics, Mulla Sadra, and some of his followers have presented some arguments for the personal unity of existence. Regardless of other people's arguments and their status of being perfect or imperfect, only Mulla Sadra’s arguments for the personal unity of existence are studied here. It seems that one can pose an objection to any of his arguments, and hence (in a philosophical atmosphere), none of his arguments for the personal unity of existence is complete.

KEY WORDS: Personal unity of Existence, Connective Being, Particular Gradation, Illuminative Relation, Causality.       

The Presence of Truth in Art from the Viewpoint of Mulla Sadra’s Philosophy

Mahdi Amini (PhD Student of Theosophy of Religious Art in University of Religions and Religious Sects)

Akbar Faydeie (Lecturer in Department of Philosophy and Islamic Theosophy/ Shahid Madani University of Azarbayzan)

ABSTRACT

This article claims that the art is not just the product of the taste and feelings of its creator. Rather, the artist –in proportion to his relation to truth– finds some rays of truth, while preparing the ground for its discovery in his work, giving an aspect of knowledge to his art and making it genuine. Considering this hypothesis, which is of importance in itself, the nature of truth and the degree and the quality of its presence in art is a basic issue whose answer may be found in philosophical thoughts of one of the predominant Islamic philosophers called Mulla Sadra (Sadr al-Muta’allehin). Thus, this study describes the foundations of Haqiqat and Raqiqat, unity of the knower and the known, practical reason, and the function of imagination in “spiritualizing bodies and corporealizing spirits” to explain the relationship and the role of these foundations in the nature of the presence of truth in the formation of artistic works and artifacts.

KEY WORDS: Truth, Artifacts, Imagination, Reason, Knowledge, Sadr al-Muta’allehin.

Theology Centered on the Necessity by Essence: The Second Stage of the

Way of Truthful Ones

Sayyid Muhamad Entezam (Assistant Professor in Department of Philosophy/ Mufid University)

ABSTRACT

Farabi, for the first time, spoke of the possibility to recognize God’s epithets and actions by contemplating on the necessity of existence and its requirements. Ibn Sina and, later, Mulla Sadra dealt with the method noted by Farabi with a more comprehensive and more precise look, calling it the “way of the truthful ones”. This method, as defined by Ibn Sina and Mulla Sadra, is divided into two stages. The first stage is proving the Necessary Being by Essence through an existence-centered argument, called the argument of the truthful ones. The second stage is recognizing God’s epithets and actions by contemplating on His being Necessary in Essence and its requirements that we have called, here, “theology centered on the necessity by essence”. In the present article, we have organized the second stage in five steps as follows: Unity, Oneness, general look at God’s epithets, identifying the instances of epithets, and the nature of God’s action. We, then, have shown the centrality of “necessity of existence” in the five axes to prove the possibility of this type of theology.

KEY WORDS: Necessity of Existence, Necessity by Essence, the way of the Truthful ones, the Argument of the Truthful ones, Theology.        

Features of the Subject Matter of the Human Sciences and their

Methodological and Teleological Implications

Ahmad Hussein Sharifi (Associate Professor in Department of Philosophy/ Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute)

ABSTRACT

The present article uses a descriptive and analytical method to explain the features of the subject matter of the human sciences, that is, human actions, and their methodological and teleological implications. The dependence of the subject matter of the human sciences on awareness, volition, free will, needs, requirements of time and place, and cultural features of the researchers, as well as purposefulness, meaningfulness, abstractness and impressionability of human actions are among the most important features of the subject matter of the human sciences. The investigations of this paper show that paying attention to those features leads us to: (a) acknowledge the complexities of studying human actions; (b) avoid restricting the methods of the human sciences to empirical method, using various methods of discovering truth in our investigations; and (c) depict the goal of the human sciences in accordance with the ultimate goal of human activities.

KEY WORDS: Human Sciences, Method of the Human Sciences, the end of the Human Sciences, Human Actions, Meaningfulness of Human Actions.

The Effect of Monotheism on Strategic Principles of Prescriptive Human Sciences from Allama Tabataba'i’s View

Sayyid Muhammad Mu’allemi (PhD Student of Philosophy/ Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute)

Ali Mesbah (Assoicate Professor in Department of Philosophy/ Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute)

ABSTRACT

The foundations and presuppositions of the human sciences are of great importance to the human sciences. Among them, religious foundations –including religious beliefs– are very effective in Islamizing the human sciences. In the present article, we have dealt with the effect of monotheism on the strategic foundations of prescriptive human sciences in Allama Tabataba'i’s view. Accordingly, we have first explained what we mean by the key words of the article; then, studied the effect of monotheism on the foundations of the human sciences in brief, and on prescriptive principles of the human sciences in detail.

KEY WORDS: God-Centrism, Prescriptive Human Sciences, Allama Tabataba'i, Islamizing the Human Sciences, Prescriptive Principles, Fitrah, Guidance. 

An Inquiry into the Question of Abstract/Material Nature of

Sensory Perception

Muhammad Hassan Fatemi-nia (PhD Student of Philosophy/ Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute)

Askari Soleymani Amiri (Associate Professor in Imam Khomeini Educational and Research Institute)

ABSTRACT

The present study deals with one of the ontological rules of sensory perception. Ontological look at sensory perception has certain rules. Among them (or even the most important one) is the abstract or material nature of perception, and among various types of perception, sensory perception –due to its direct relation to the outside world– is more liable to being material and physical. In this study, thus, we attempt to reject the views claiming that sensory perception is material. To do so, we have investigated the issue from two aspects: acquired and intuitive. To observe brevity, we have focused on the views presented by the founders of three schools of Peripatetic, Illumination and Transcendental philosophy on the one hand, and the views of psychologists of sensation and perception on the other, disregarding other issues. The results show that the views of Ibn Sina, psychologists and physiologists on sensory perception lead to its material nature and is rejected by many critiques, while the views of Illuminationists (regarding sensory perception as intuitive) and the followers of Mulla Sadra (regarding it as acquired) both lead to the abstract nature of sensory perception and are authorized and confirmed.

KEY WORDS: Sensory Perception, Physical, Abstract, Brain, Mind, Ontology of Knowledge.

Allama Tabataba'i, a Theosophist or a Great Separationist?

Omid Ahanchi (Assistant Professor in Sharif Industrial University)

ABSTRACT

The main claim of the separationists is the separation of revelation from reason and intuition. To obtain religious teachings, as they claim, there must be a distinction between reason and intuition on one hand, and revelation on the other. To justify their claim, they use various methods. One of them is attributing this idea to great religious figures and personages. Accordingly, Muhammad Reza Hakimi, in many of his works, attributes this theory to Allama Tabataba'i, introducing him as the defender of the theory of separation so that he may attract some attention to the claims of separationists. To better analyze this claim by Mr. Hakimi, we have first extracted two main axes of his claim, then analyzed them separately. Having analyzed those axes through destructive and constructive arguments, we made it clear that first Allama Tabataba'i does not believe in the separationists’ claim, and second, Muhammad Reza Hakimi has mixed up affirmation with assertion, which then has led to the semantic distortion of Allama Tabataba'i’s statement.

KEY WORDS: Allama Tabataba'i, Muhammad Reza Hakimi, Separationism, Philosophy, Mysticism, the Quran, Transmission.

An Inquiry into the Philosophical and Religious Implications of Quantum Physics

Sayyid Jaber Musawi-rad (PhD in Philosophy of Religion/ Tehran University)

ABSTRACT

Quantum physics has been founded on the basis of non-determination and non-predictability in atomic sphere. After the appearance of quantum physics, some made an attempt to extract some philosophical and religious implications out of this type of physics. Baselessness of realism, invalidity of causality principle, and invalidity of cognation are among such philosophical implications of quantum physics. Clearly, these philosophical implications put their marks on some religious beliefs as well. In addition to those philosophical implications, some have regarded the invalidity of “argument from order” as an implication of quantum physics, while some others regard this type of physics as a new way to prove the existence of God. Besides, faithful and theist philosophers have obtained religious conclusions such as proving free will, God’s will and God’s subsistence from this physics. We have concluded, while investigating those implications, that quantum physics has no special philosophical or religious implications at all.

KEY WORDS: Quantum, God, Argument from Order, Causality Principle, Realism.