فصلنامه اندیشه دینی
پیاپی 21 (زمستان 1385)

Sheikh Shahabdin Sohravardi is a philosopher and Gnostic whose philosophy is a combination of theoretical insight and practical discipleship. In his philosophy the theory and practice are so combined together that he does not call philosopher those who are out of this way. He gives us a picture of different stages of discipleship in his works.Human soul is an illumination limited to worldly life and it should come back to his real home. In this way, a disciple should put away all dark dependences and by strong will, reliance in God and his teacher's teachings, he should undergo theoretical and practical mortification. Sohravardi gives his teachings as analogy, symbol, allusion and metaphors. His instructions are conveyed to his disciples and followers through codes and as dialogues in which sometimes he is the sheikh and sometimes the disciple. The chain of Sufism that he belongs to is not well known and this causes a problem to describe a systematic explanation of his disciple's method. If one refer to his works, one can find out some of his ways, and the main constructive elements of his Gnostic path way.

The rationality of ethics is one of the most important issues for philosophers. This concept includes judgment on rationality of choice and justification of beliefs as well as explanation and justification of moral behaviors.Strong, weak and moderate rationalists take different positions, based on their approaches to the concept of reason. Having more inclination to the role of emotions, weak rationalists do not agree with the others in epistemic and motivational role of reason. Despite many similarities, strong and moderate rationalists think differently about the role of cognitive and non-cognitive aspects of moral motivation. In this paper, we clarify the relationship between morality and reason in these three approaches. Justification of behaviors and moral motivation, as well as internalism and externalism are discussed in this paper. At last, the role virtue as a mean of justifying the moral rationality is emphasized.

One of the philosophical- theological questions related to divine attributes and works is that whether the governing system of this world is the best one, and whether it is necessary for such system to be free of evil and whether it is necessary for God to create such a system. In this paper these questions are surveyed from Leibniz's and Avecina's viewpoints, especially based on the assumption that God is infinitely wise, knowledgeable powerful and good. Both philosophers believe that the evil that we see in this world does not proceed from being but it is a kind of non- being, and in order to cancel the little evil we must lose the great good.Although both philosophers see the system of this world as a necessary one, but the difference is that Avecina sees it as a philosophical necessity but according to Leibniz it is an ethical necessity.

Kant is the innovator of "the synthetic a priori proposition" and this has a principal status in his philosophy.Firstly, in this paper, the propositions are divided into "synthetic and analytic", and "a priori and a posteriori; and our purpose is to understand Kant's viewpoint over this issue.Then, the concept of "a priori" will be investigated from Kant's viewpoint. The result of this study is that: the synthetic a priori proposition is the synonym to a proposition which is universal, necessary and not derived from experience.Then, the procedure that Kant adopts for attainment of knowledge, or of synthetic a priori proposition will be discussed.Finally, the question which was posed in the title of the present paper will find the answer that the procedure that Kant presents for attainment of knowledge is unable to produce synthetic a priori propositions, because this procedure has necessarily a part that has been obtained from experience.

The present study aims at finding answers to the following questions: (1) How has the Sufi Tarighat of Ardabil been influenced by religious thought before the formation of the Safavi government? (2) What factors have influenced the approach of Safavi sheiks toward Ghaliane thought? (3) Why do the eighth and the ninth centuries movements have a Ghaliane identity? and (4) What are the common elements of Ghaliane sects during this period?In the study of the religious approach in Safavi Tarighat something will be said about the Caliphate system and the emergence of a religious and political vacuum following the Mongol invasion in the seventh century. The effects of the Mongol invasion on strengthening spiritual bases and the growth of sufism in the interval between the seventh century till the formation of the Safavi government in the tenth century is also important. Sufi Tarighats experienced internal intellectual twists under the influence of the circumstances of the period and moved toward the seizure of political power through Ghaliane approach. This is the common point of all Sufi movements in the eighth and the ninth centuries. The point is that Safavies were the most outstanding Sufi and Ghaliane movement during these times which succeeded in forming a comprehensive government.

A general survey of the studies on Quranic Tamsils (analogies) indicates that the researchers have frequently viewed this matter from literary and rhetoric points of view during the recent centuries. Analysing the various aspects of training Quranic Tamsils and their effects on training and guiding people has been either ignored or has not been scrutinized in the past works.In this article, efforts have been made to briefly view this subject from training point of view on one hand, and the training effects resulted from it on the other.