نشریه فلسفه
سال چهل و دوم شماره 1 (بهار و تابستان 1393)

The revival of Aquinas''s philosophical and theological thought in modern age has been one of the mental disturbances of thinkers that found Aquinas''s ideas the best guide for resolving the modern philosophical and theological problems. This attitude to Aquinas''s ideas، that known as Thomism، in 20th century by raising the Analytical Thomism resulted in a new age of Thomism. Analytical Thomists by enjoying from analytic philosophy especially the logical foundations of Ferege''s thought presented new interpretations of Aquinas’s ideas. This new approach culminated by Anthony Kenny and his interpretations of Aquinas. Adopting the logical foundations by of Frege، Kenny tried to show that Aquinas’s Ontology has many contradictions and is not an authentic view about Being. In this article، we try to survey and criticize the Kenny''s approach to Aquinas''s Ontology.

Explanation of the relationship between soul and body is one of the most important concerns of Dualist philosophers. Even though the Dualism goes back to Plato، Rene Descartes، a French philosopher، has considerable contribution on explanation، modification or، in some senses، correction of this theory. These contributions was to the extent that sometimes such thoughts are referred to as Platonic-Descartian dualism. The most challenging subject of this theory is to explain that how soul and body communicate. Descartes introduces the pineal gland، the small gland in the middle of the brain، as the «seat of the soul» where body and soul are interacting. The aim of this paper is to explain the role and the importance of pineal gland through the history of philosophy especially through Descartes philosophy. For this reason، at first the historical context of the importance of pineal gland is studied and then viewpoints of Descartes about the gland، based on his works، are explained.

Human beings as a Percipient creature always deals with “understanding” and every action and reaction of him is accompanied with understanding. From early times، this permanent and significant feature of understanding has made the scholars to investigate the structure and methods for achieving a valid understanding. Augustine as a Christian impressive saint in early middle age and Rumi as a mystic and Moslem scholar at the late part of this period are examples of such scholars. One of the principles of their existential hermeneutics is believing in the impact of existential factors in understanding. These two scholars do not separate the Communicating vessels of understanding domain from emotional and voluntary domain. The motto” Credo ut intelligam” of Augustine which is equivalent with “the faith is the same as discrimination and understanding” of Rumi، indicates the common ideas of these two thinkers. To confirm this motto، the philosophical common basis of this theory is discussed and then has been tried to discuss the Rumi’s view based on necessity of cognation between subject and object. Finally tried to claim that misunderstanding of Augustinian’s motto is the product of factors such as the difference between the point of view and ignoring the degrees or levels of faith and understanding in two forms: interreligious and out of religion. Therefore، by introducing three degrees of faith and two domains of understanding and knowing their relationship as dialectic، I have triedto explain and eliminate these misunderstandings.

Mulla sadra treated logos (Kalam) as something that expresses the inside of the speaker، and explained that divine logos includes God’s creatures and God''s action، therefore applying the word and logos to the universe is true، and according to the definition، God is speaker. Mulla Sadra explains the divine logos and command in three steps: superior logos i. e. the world of Amr، middle logos i. e. the world of soul، and the inferior logos is the revelation or the world of legislation. But from Sadraean point of view، one can consider every word as a book، and every book as a word; so writing of God consists of three steps. In each step، God is the speaker and at the same time is the writer. Another point is the difference between the word and the scripture. They are two different sides of one coin. The word is about the necessity and returns to creator and the book refers to possibility and then to creatures. These two have congruency and symbolic aspects، Origin and end of the word and book is the world of intellect.

This essay attempts to express the point that in Martin Heidegger’s thought، the primordial relationship between man and the world is constituted through action. In the field of action، man، because of his being situated inside the tool-structure of the world، is provided with meaning، but is not too absorbed in theoretical contemplation. As soon as some kind of interruption is introduced in this structure and relationship، when things are detached from their underlying nexus of relations، an opportunity is opened for theoretical thinking. This theoretical tendency results in the mediation on tools، regardless of their relationships، which bestows meaning. Ethics، as Heidegger understands، is based on care. It is dependent on the existential understandings of the thinkers in different historical eras، which is then systematized. Ethical systems in the time of crisis، i. e. in a time of the lack of existential meanings، are severed from their tenets، and thus lose any kind of obligatory quality. Accordingly، establishing new ethical imperatives depends on a being liberated from the crisis and renewing the bind with being. Intercultural philosophy، through its rejection of absolutism and egoism، can have a close intimacy with Heidegger’s ideas on the relationship between theory and praxis.

Corresponding to the division of the scientific knowledge to demonstrable and indemonstrable knowledge in Aristotle’s philosophy، the concept of nous has two interwoven senses. Besides nous as the demonstrable scientific knowledge، it is also regarded as the hexis of the soul. There are three specific functions of this latter sense: i) acquiring principles on which the scientific knowledge is based; ii) understanding universals in actual sense perception and iii) conceiving universal propositions during induction (epagoge). Nous as the origin of acquiring demonstrative knowledgeis، thus، both the process of acquiring demonstrable knowledge and its final result. The illumination of this point، it seems، can throw light on some of the common ambiguities about nous.

The major problem of the present article is to investigaterelation between Epistemological Behaviorism and objectivity. Can we believe in the one and set aside the foundational attitude to knowledge، but nevertheless we preserve the other and claim that the inquiry is answerable to the world. In this article،McDowell’s positive answer to this question is considered. In this respect، McDowell’s ideas along two axes are put forward: negative ideas stating his critical analysis about the mistaken conceptions، involved in Rorty’s ideas، that are led to the denial of objective knowledge and the confirmation of solidarity; and positive ideas showing his specific attitude to world، mental occurrences، impressions the world makes on us، perceptual experience، the actualization and the exercise of conceptual capacities، the position of experience in the order of justification، and objective knowledge. McDowell’s procedure to prove how our intellectual activity can make us answerable to reality، and how our thinking puts us in possession of objective knowledge is the new one which is not based on the traditional conception of knowledge. But، for him، to deny the foundational attitude to knowledge is not to deny objectivity and cognitive relation with world.

Johann Gottfried von Herder''s thought has a wide range and in order to roam in his views we should deal with the issues such as humanity، history and philosophy of history، anthropology، culture and philosophy of culture as he has proposed. Concerning the conditions of the contemporary world and the importance of such questions as nature of culture، relation between cultures and the future of culture، it seems necessary to read out the works of Herder. The least benefit of reading out Herder''s ideas is that we get familiar with a suitable paradigm for a deep study and analysis of culture and the existing questions around it; a paradigm that is essential for perusing theoretical studies about culture. In this paper Herder''s ideas about culture have been discussed and the point which has been particularly emphasized here is that it is through Herder''s works that culture as a subject for philosophy is put into the mind and «philosophy of culture» is formed. Concerning Herder''s paradigm، this paper proceeds to survey the relation between cultures in the contemporary world. The issue of the relation between cultures is an issue which has been greatly prominent in recent three decades، and it seems that Herder''s insight and treatment is one of the best paradigms to enter into such an issue.