معرفت فلسفی

Throughout history, most philosophers have been incapable of proving the universal conscience of all creatures in a philosophical term; rather, they have denied any conscience in physical entitites, based on some evidences. Transcendental philosophy has made valuable efforts to present a philosophical explanation for this religious teaching, and Mulla Sadra and the followers of transcendental philosophy have attempted to explain it intellectually and rationally. In the present article, through a descriptive-analytical method and using a comparative-critical approach, an explanation of the generalization of understanding to physical entities by considering their non-physical facet has been investigated. The findings of the present research suggest that although Mulla Sadra and many other thinkers have accepted the abovementioned explanation, putting it forward as one of the ways to reconcile the belief in universal conscience of all beings based on the concomitance on the one hand and the acceptance of the reasons for abstractness of knowledge on the other hand, its verity is doubted. However, the writer believes that although one cannot prove the universal conscience of all beings using this reason, we may adduce those Quranic verses and traditions that denote comparatively or essentially the influence of perception in beings to conclude that any being – including material ones – somewhat enjoy knowledge.