فصلنامه معرفت فلسفی
سال دهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 37، پاییز 1391)

Having a clear image of the nature of creation not only gives a true comprehension of the quality of the relation of man with his Creator, but paves the way for being a better servant before God. Considering the comprehensiveness of Mulla Sadra’s philosophy, the important question is what picture he gives of the reality of creation. Taking the works and thoughts of Mulla Sadra into consideration, we find out that he depicts creation in the framework of the theory of manifestation in the light of the theory of particular unity of existence. Based on this picture, the absolute existence, enjoying all existential perfections, creates the creatures through a process of retrogression and manifestation. What occurs in the process of manifestation is the appearance of the latent attributes and perfections of the absolute existence the absolute that is present within the determinations and manifestations. However the absolute essence has adopted certain determination and has descended from the position of absoluteness and absence of determination. Thus the reality of creation, from the perspective of Mulla Sadra, is nothing but limitation and determination of the unique absolute essence of God. Creatures are considered as the determinations of the very absolute existence. Of course, God — glory be to Him — is not the very essence of any creature, and no creature is the very essence of God.

Speculative intellect is the most significant faculty of intellective soul whose principal function — according to philosophers — is the intellection of universals. These universals comprise forms and meanings, conceptions and affirmations, true and false propositions, theoretical and practical propositions, the necessary, possible and impossible ones, presumed premises and certain premises. Without any need to body and physical powers, speculative intellect receives these universals from supreme beginnings in a particular way with intuitive knowledge, while its role in this reception is just passivity and affection. The present article is an attempt to respond to the following questions from the perspective of Ibn Sina and Mulla Sadra: What are the principles of speculative intellect and its various grades? Is it possible for all people to achieve all grades of speculative intellect? What is the role of speculative intellect in creation of knowledge and morality? Is there any role for speculative intellect in the happiness and perfection of man in this world and the Hereafter? What are the obstacles to this role?

One of the most important inner faculties of soul is the faculty of memory. The present article deals with this faculty in existential and epistemological realms both. In the existential realm, the general tendency of Muslim philosophers towards reductive approach concerning inner faculties of soul is reasonable. However, because of the distinctive attitude of contemporary philosophers towards this faculty and its functions, existential autonomy is the most likely idea. In the epistemological approach, considering the analogous approach of Mulla Sadra and contemporary Muslim philosophers, the functions of memorizing and retrieving meanings both are dealt with in the context of presence and abstraction. In this realm, the probability of labeling the process of retrieving as fallible due to the imperfection and lack of intensification of certain souls is being explained. On the issue of the quality of the correspondence of the meanings of memory, the article has taken into consideration Mulla Sadra’s approach and particularly Ayatollah Mesbah’s one concerning gradation of intuitive perceptions and the theory of the unity of the intelligent and the intelligible as the platform of the transcendence of soul in terms of degrees of intuitive knowledge and achieving the final goal of affection.

The concept of extension in natural sciences and the feature of extensity of physical objects is considered self evident and presumptive by Muslim theosophers. That a physical object has dimensions of width, length, and depth is recognized by almost all theosophers. However, they have followed different procedures in describing and explaining this fact. It is most likely that the only intellectual concept common among all classic and later philosophers is the very extensity of physical objects. The issue of extensity has not been taken into deep and precise consideration and investigation due to deeming itself evident and because of its frequent adoption and recognition by philosophers. Thus, this issue has been rarely studied according to the findings of modern science or any new approach. As the article suggests, no new or different explanation has been given for the concept of dimension and extensity since the time of Ibn Sina. Benefitting directly from Ibn Sina’s discussions on extended body, the present article seeks to offer a roughly new account of the concept of extension. In addition, it tends to see this issue not belonging exclusively to the field of intellectual sciences, but as a part of modern science. Thus it takes the relation of extension to its analogous concepts in mathematics into account.

Logic is one of the significant sources for understanding facts. In addition to their formal function, categories and concepts dealt with in logic can prepare a good foundation and framework towards better understanding of facts based on their hermeneutic role. Resting on two concepts of classic logic i. e. the universal and the whole, the present article seeks to reach an understanding of the history of philosophy. In other words, it is an attempt to investigate the history of philosophy based on the two approaches of holism and universalism. Taking special limitations of such a research into account, the present article claims that it is possible to reach an acceptable understanding of the features of history of philosophy based on these two approaches. The article also points to the differences of the two approaches of holism and universalism on such issues as the nature of philosophy, history of philosophy, knowledge, theology, and cognition.

Taking into account the weak points of the extant humanities on the one hand and the strong points of Islamic humanities on the other, one would find out that there is an undeniable necessity for discussing Islamization of humanities. Thus recognizing and removing the obstacles in this way, we should find some mechanisms towards Islamization of humanities. According to Allama Mesbah, to create a development in humanities, we should reconsider their foundations based on Islamic teachings on the one hand, and benefitting the proper method, we should emphasize the application of Islamic regulations and values in them. Investigating into the works of Allama Mesbah, explaining humanities and Religious humanities as two important keywords, and reviewing the weak points of the extant humanities, the present article seeks to study the necessity of Islamization of humanities and identify the obstacles as well as the mechanisms towards Islamic humanities. The article ends with general conditions of Islamization of different disciplines from the perspective of Allama Mesbah.

Beauty as one of the most deeply rooted natural wishes of human being, and art as the practical manifestation of his wish In the realm of human life, are two important categories in human investigations. Thus nowadays the philosophy of art and aesthetics are closely linked with religion, ethics, and most of other branches of humanities, etc. Furthermore, the inclusiveness of the range of the influence of art in individual as well as social life of human being in all ages, particularly in our age, doubles the necessity of basic and applied researches in this field. Studying the thoughts of Ayatollah Mesbah concerning beauty and art, the present article first deals with the meaning of art and fine arts, and then with the definition of beauty and its relation with art. Study of the position of form and matter (form and contents) in art has found its way into the fields of beauty. In addition, analysis of relativity in arts has led to raising the issue of “art and value” and researching into it.