Philosophy as a Journey: Plato Compared with Sohravardi

In comparative philosophy, the philosophers’ conception of philosophy within their philosophical systems are compared. As one way to infer a philosopher’s conception of philosophy is through his/her definition of philosophy, in this article, we compare the definitions of philosophy provided by Plato and Sohrevardi. Both philosophers consider philosophy as a process and consider it as a transition from multiple world to the world of oneness. For both, the outcome of this transition is observation through illumination. From Plato’s point of view, the first stage of this process is wonder, love of wisdom, existential involvement with a philosophical problem, all of which are dedicated to theanalysis of the philosopher’s inside world. For Plato the transition from the multiple world is possible through practice of death while Sohrevardi starts this process with complete separation from universe without the analysis of the philosopher’s inside world. Assimilation to God, being in company with God, and becoming eternal are the final goals of philosophy from Plato’s point of view. For Sohrevardi wisdom has no limits.