ماهنامه معرفت
سال نوزدهم شماره 12 (پیاپی 159، اسفند 1389)

Socrates is a name that has always associated with wisdom (theosophy).To illustrate his significance suffice it to say that he is Plato's favorite master. Plato is a thinker that a philosopher like Whitehead, when describing him, says that all western philosophy is nothing but commentaries on his philosophy. Aristotle, who is known as "absolute philosopher" and Islamic and western philosophy owe to him, is Plato's indirect pupil. Socrate's status in wisdom and ethics is such that some consider him as a prophet. There is a consensus that Socrates is the one who claims to train others to have wisdom.This brief research aims at understanding Plato's life, familiarity with his way of thinking, and his role in expanding wisdom. Through reflecting in and analyzing the works left which include Socratic wisdom, we will find that Socrates had been not only a thinker but also had internalized wisdom and virtue as his inseparable personality traits. He put the philosophical reflection in its true path by devising his own specific inductive method and restless search to achieve the essence and reality of things.

Al-Asfār al-arba‘at al- ‘aqliyyah (“Four Intellectual Journeys”) is among the issues discussed both in gnosis and al-hikmat al-muta‘āliyah (transcendent philosophy). Gnostics believe that a wayfarer makes four journeys, using a gnostical method. Divine philosophers, too, believe that philosophical matters are kinds of rational and reflective journeys. Therefore, Mulla Sadrā organizes philosophical guestions within Four Journeys, based on a fact that reflection is a kind of mystical journey, but a mental one. Gnosis and divine philosophy has a feature in common and some differences. The common feature is that both aim at knowledge of God.The present paper aims at explaining and analyzing a spiritual journey from gnostical and philosophical perspective. Relying on viewpoints of such thinkers as Plotinus, al-Ghazzāli, Ibn ‘Arabi and Mulla Sadrā, it explains common features and differences in an aforementioned matter.

The Proof of the Necessary Being, the possibility and quality of Knowing Him is the most important issue in philosophy. The Seddiqin Argument is considered a well-known and long-lasting one, among different arguments presented by thinkers to prove the Necessary Being. In the history of Islamic philosophy, Avicenna was the first thinker who proposed this Argument. Many philosophers following him have dealt with it and tried to develop a different version of it. Therefore, one of the main objectives of proposing the matter is familiarity with Avicenna's philosophical method of theology, for considering the early thinker's method of theology provide us with a very valuable historical experience and helps us prepare a suitable modus operandi for some of today's philosophical problems about theology. The present paper, through library research method, aims at extracting the principles of Avicenna's argument from his philosophical works and providing a clear illustration of "Seddeqin Argument" in order to put it in its proper and real place.

Over time, Islamic philosophy and wisdom have been flourished due to the efforts of many different schools in philosophy. Taking into account the limited and complicated resources (in philosophy), some eminent Muslim thinkers such as al-Farabi, al-Kindi, and others took preliminary steps in Islamic philosophy until they came to establish what is called the “Peripatetic School” in philosophy. The second influential school which played a significant role in developing the Islamic philosophy was that of Shihāb al-Din Suhrawardi in the sixth century A.H. which came to be known as the “Illuminative School (of philosophy)”. The main and clear characteristic of this philosophical school is that it paved the ground for certain philosophical doctrines in the West and East to incorporate into a coherent system. Having carefully studied the teachings of the Qur’an, Islamic traditions (hadiths), the Peripatetic School, the Ancient Greek philosophy, Islamic mysticism (Gnosticism), etc., Suhrawardi developed some innovations in his system of philosophy. The present research seeks to explore philosophical schools and doctrines on which Suhrawardi based his philosophical system. To sum up, the research concludes with the fact that Suhrawardi developed a philosophical system called the ‘illuminative School’ which was, in a way or other, coherent and consistent with, though in some ways different from, the Peripatetic School, taking crucial steps towards flourishing the Islamic philosophy.

One of the most fundamental issues in practical mysticism is "the intuitive knowledge of the soul". Philosophers and gnostics have long focused their attention on the knowledge of the soul. Perhaps, the roots of the issue can be found in Socrate's works. Socrates always emphasized on the well-known sentence:" Know yourself". Philosophers after him, from Aristotle to al- Farabi, Avicenna (Ibn sina) Suhrawardi, MirDāmād, Mulla Sadrā, Mulla Hādi Sabzevāri, and `Allāme Tabātabāi, have specifically discussed the issue in their works. The main question of this research is whether man can intuitively attain all stages and ranks of his existence to arrire at virtue? And what is the way to achieve this favorite aim? The method of the research is rational-analytical.Inspired by gnostic basic principles and his own personal experience in "the intuitive knowledge of the soul", ‘Allame Tābatabai, has proposed a systematic explanation of the knowledge of the soul. To sum up, the present paper is an effort to reinvestigate and reexamine ‘Allāme's viewpoint. Furthermore, in the light of the works of the gnostics "the stages of knowledge of the soul" are explained, which are divided into four stages: "imaginal", "rational", annihilation in God" and “spiritual sobriety after self-effacement” (Sahw bad almahw)

One of the most fundamental issues in practical mysticism is "the intuitive knowledge of the soul". Philosophers and gnostics have long focused their attention on the knowledge of the soul. Perhaps, the roots of the issue can be found in Socrate's works. Socrates always emphasized on the well-known sentence:" Know yourself". Philosophers after him, from Aristotle to al- Farabi, Avicenna (Ibn sina) Suhrawardi, MirDāmād, Mulla Sadrā, Mulla Hādi Sabzevāri, and `Allāme Tabātabāi, have specifically discussed the issue in their works. The main question of this research is whether man can intuitively attain all stages and ranks of his existence to arrire at virtue? And what is the way to achieve this favorite aim? The method of the research is rational-analytical.Inspired by gnostic basic principles and his own personal experience in "the intuitive knowledge of the soul", ‘Allame Tābatabai, has proposed a systematic explanation of the knowledge of the soul. To sum up, the present paper is an effort to reinvestigate and reexamine ‘Allāme's viewpoint. Furthermore, in the light of the works of the gnostics "the stages of knowledge of the soul" are explained, which are divided into four stages: "imaginal", "rational", annihilation in God" and “spiritual sobriety after self-effacement” (Sahw bad almahw)

There are some similarities and differences between al-Ghazzali and kant on the cognition of metaphysics. Seven centuries before kant developed his philosophy, al-Ghazzali had written Critiques on Philosophy. However, both Philosophy have thought of reviving religion, though al-Ghazzali thought of reviving a comprehersive non-secularist Islamic thought and kant thought of a secularist, humanistic, and rational Protestant thought.Of Criticism raised against al-Ghazzali’s system of thought, one is the thre is less or no coherence and consistency in his ideas. On the one hand, he accused some thinkers whose Philosophical arguments have been used by him in metaphysical subjects. On the other hand, What he has incorporated into his system of thought as the combination of discursive arguments and inner intuitions is crude when compared with what Mullā Sadrā incorporated in his philosophical system which was taken to be on firm foundations and methods.Moreover, what al-Ghazzali refuted in thoughts and works of the early philosophers was nto, in fact, wrong, but refuted in favor of Ash‘ari and Sufi’s teachings.Kant did not succeed to justify the breach between noumenon and phenomenon on the basis of his own philosophical system. His practical moral code was influenced by the Protestant teachings, independent from religion, abstract and imaginative in nature.The ethics be proposed was deficient and had no relationship with religion. His argument that one can assume obligation without taking God into consideration is flase. His Critiques of rational proofs of metaphysical matters are biased and illogical.The article has dealt with the subject in question drawing upon a documentary method.

Utilitarianism can not be considered as Bentham's innovation. However, he offered evidence to substantiate it and proposed an everlasting interpretation of it. "Pleasure" and "pain" are two fundamental concepts in utilitarianism, because utility (good) means increase in pleasure and decrease in pain, and because utilitarianism, as the word itself signifies, considers the principle of utility as the main principle. Utility does not mean a personal utility, but a collective one, so that Bentham considers "the greatest good for the greatest number of people" as the measurement for any moral acts. The research method is documentary analysis. The result is that the greatest advantage of utilitarianism is that it provides an objective and practical measurement. In other words, utilitarianism claims that only the principle of utility, i.e., "the greatest happiness of the greatest number", provides the measure of right and wrong actions. Bentham, even, provides seven-fold measurement to evaluate the pleasures which are single and the result of action. These measurements fit into quantity aspect. Finally, the objections raised against Bentham's theory on utilitarianism are discussed.

Seyyed Hussein Nasr, like other traditionalists, is a serious critic of modernism. He considers this criticism of modernism as Something divine and a duty of all Islamic thinkers and theologians. He not only criticizes the negative consequences and effects of modernism, but also believes that its theoretical foundations are shaky. According to him, the amnesia of Divine Reality, the loss of the sense of the sacred in human knowledge, replacing theocentrism with humanism, and lacking of spirituality are fundamental critiques of western civilization. Undermining religion, promoting fundamentalism, destroying environment, scientism, individualism, creating moral crisis, losing family identity, and changing the concepts of freedom, human rights, etc. are Dr. Nasr's other critiques of western civilization. He is unable to present a proper alternative for modernism, and considers the goodness of modernism as accidental and its badness as essential. He proposes traditionalism as the alternative for modernism, which itself is created by the West and has some problems. This paper, using a documentary and analytical method, investigates modernity from his point of view.