Rational and Hypothetical Goodness and Baseness

This article explicates goodness and baseness from the viewpoint of Muslim theologians and theosophists in general، and Allameh Tabatabaee in particular. Hence، after analyzing the views of theologians، rational and hypothetical goodness and baseness from the perspective of Muslim theosophists are considered. The theosophists before Allameh Tabatabaee had not tackled this issue in depth and what they have left behind on this subject is a brief collection of ideas which need to be extracted and sought out from their works of logics. Therefore، this issue needs to be inquired about in Allameh Tabatabaee’s works as he has tackled this issue in a new way and with a higher degree of seriousness while being faithful to the position of the early theosophists in general. Hence، he has put forward a discussion under the title of real and hypothetical perceptions in his works and has categorized hypothetical affairs into pre-community and post-community hypothetical matters. Criticizing Ash''arite and Mu''tazilite theologians’ conception of goodness and baseness، he has explained and highlighted rational and hypothetical goodness and baseness within the framework of post-community hypothetical matters and has explored this perspective from different angles. Allameh Tabatabaee’s view on this issue can be considered from gnostic، religious، philosophical، ethical، and theological perspectives and the present article looks into some of these dimensions. An attempt has also been made not to neglect some of the views which oppose Allameh Tabatabaee.