نشریه پژوهش های عقلی نوین
پیاپی 15 (بهار و تابستان 1402)

The issue reviewed in this research is the other and its effect on perfection of the soul from the viewpoint of Mulla Sadra's philosophy. Some contemporary thinkers in the West have paid attention to the issue of the other and various types of human relationships and each have addressed this issue from a different angle. Perfection of the soul is one of the issues that has been rationally justified by Mulla Sadra through the two principles of "corporeality of contingency and spirituality of persistence" of the soul and "substantial motion". The perfection of a person depends on the use of two theoretical and practical faculties and reaching the rank of acquired intellect and emptying the soul of moral vices. From Mulla Sadra's viewpoint, perfection of the soul can only be achieved through worldly mode of being and social life. Undoubtedly, in the social life, human beings are connected with others, and the prosperity and adversity of the soul depends, to a large extent, on how one interacts with them. Examples of others include the mass of people, the teacher and the guardian of the society. In the fourth journey, the seeker is inevitably connected with others, and thereby, he is not only a pathfinder in guiding them, but this connection is also effective in his own upward journey. In this article, the effectiveness of others in the perfection of the soul will be examined with an analytical method.

Future studies as an emerging field has faced many challenges in the last few decades, the most serious of which is leaving the baselessness situation and being equipped with philosophical foundations in order to transform into a scientific field. In this regard, it is faced with basic questions such as how to do research on the future that has not yet been realized, and whether it is even possible to gain knowledge from future-oriented statements. In response to these questions, the authors of the present article first undertake to identify the areas of research about the future and then analyze the serious epistemological issues facing them. Also, taking these issues into consideration, the possibility of gaining knowledge from future assumptions has been analyzed through the lens of three laws of thought. Finally, the authors have explored into the main theories of truth and justification in relation to the future propositions and have proposed theories that are suitable for creating a justified true belief in the future propositions. The results gained by this article indicate that there is an initial possibility of gaining knowledge from future-oriented beliefs. In this regard, the theory of truthfulness has been analyzed and proposed to verify the truth of these beliefs and the theories of introversion and moderate fundamentalism to justify them.

The relationship between moral knowledge and practice in philosophy of ethics has always faced the important challenge of conscious moral error and the gap between moral knowledge and practice. Such a challenge has mainly led to attempts in resolving this gap by emphasizing other areas such as emotions and will of humans. From among Muslim thinkers, Mulla Sadra's existential approach towards all perfections, including ma’rifat (gnostic knowledge) and the good, is more adaptable to the Socratic approach to ma’rifat and excellence and, consequently, is exposed to the above-mentioned challenge. This research examines this issue by maintaining the priority of explaining the limitations of the two sides of the relationship over its principle and with an analytical-inferential view of the epistemological and axiological perspective of Sadr al-Mutalahin. According to Sadra's philosophy, due to the volitional nature of the moral practice and the precedence of will to perception of the self, the perception of the favorable and the universal favorable perceptions among them, these three perceptions are the source of motivation for the moral practice. On the other hand, the motivational effect of perceptions in relation to actions is proportional to their existential order, and the knowledge by presence, because of the objectivity with the known, has a higher existential power than acquired knowledge, and compared to it, it is more motivating than human action. Therefore, in case of a contradiction between the presential and acquired perceptions of the person in the above-mentioned perceptions, the presential knowledge act as a buffer between the motivation of the acquired knowledge and the moral action and prevent them from realizing the appropriate action. The result is that gradation in the relationship between knowledge and excellence is the result of neglecting knowledge by presence in the process of moral practicing and the solution is to pay attention to this issue.

Intellect, as one of the tools for human recognition and knowledge, has a high standing among philosophers and thinkers. Respecting the status of intellect, Ibn ‘Arabī deems speculative intellect as powerless in knowing God. He believes that intellect has two positions in recognition of the Exalted God: first, the station of perception; and second, the station of acceptance. He views intellect powerless in terms of perception and recognition of the essence of God and some stages of His identifications and manifestations; but he also maintains that intellect is able to recognize God in terms of perception and in this perspective he does not believe in any limitations for it, even though the accepted subject would not be arguable and provable with the perceptive position of intellect. As one of the eminent Muslim philosophers, although Mullā Ṣadrā also maintains a high status for epistemology, he claims, by accepting limitations of intellect and rejecting absolute authority for it, that man can by means of rational recognitions move toward perfection of his soul and pave the way for perceptions beyond intellect. With reliance on the viewpoints of Ibn ‘Arabī and Mullā Ṣadrā concerning intellect and its limitations, the present research is intended to examine their similarities and differences in this respect.

The equivocation (ishtirāk-i lafẓī) and shared meaning (ishtirāk-i ma‘nawī) of existence in late Islamic philosophy (from the time of Mirdamad to the present era) has always been one of the most controversial philosophical issues. Some like Mulla Sadra and his disciples believed in shared meaning of existence and some others like Tabrizi and some of his disciples believed in equivocation of existence. Meanwhile, one of the unknown philosophers of the Safavid era, named Ali Quli bin Qarachaghai Khan - one of the disciples of Mulla Rajabali Tabrizi - has brought up a third assertion by the title incorporated (mutashabbaḥ) equivocation. He tries to prove this view by paying attention to the relationship between perceived and percipient and divine knowledge. The main issue in this article is the description and analysis of the theory of incorporated equivocation of existence as the third assertion in this issue; however, the analysis will not be free from critical aspects. The purpose of this article is to discuss and introduce this innovative theory to the academic community and thinkers. The research method in this article is descriptive-analytical. The summary result that the authors have achieved is that both arguments of Qarachaghai Khan to prove the incorporated equivocation of existence, due to ambiguity, lack of reasoning, incorrect presuppositions, and non-methodical presentation, do not attain the goal and the theory is vague and unjustified to a considerable extent.

The concept of freedom in Kant's view is a general concept that comprises three critiques and many of his treatises and writings. He introduced freedom as the foundation of morality and considers it the fundamental characteristic of the subject. In his view, freedom exists with two negative and positive meanings. From among these two meanings, Kant has chosen the second meaning and made it the basis of his thought. This type of freedom cannot be realized in an individual way and man finds the opportunity for appearance in light of socialization. Also, Kant has referred the realization of freedom to history and considers it a historical destiny. The present article has been written with the aim of describing the concept of freedom in Kant's thought and pointing out some of its shortcomings with an analytical-critical method. By analyzing the concept of freedom in Kant's thought, the authors have come to the conclusion that there are some important issues in the analysis of the concept of freedom that Kant did not pay attention to in his analysis of the concept of freedom; including various meanings of freedom, historical, cultural and linguistic aspects of rationality, and the commitment of the concept of freedom to satisfaction and happiness.

This Fichte's philosophy is a complex one in terms of the way of historical formation as well as the formation of his concern in the era in which he lived. The author of this article believes that if we want to find a true understanding of Fichte's thought, we must restore his historical status in political and theoretical relations; because it is in such a status that Fichte discovers his special way of thinking. Accordingly, in this research, the writer tries to examine the formation of Fichte's philosophizing method based on four components of the French Revolution, the situation of Germany, Kant's philosophy, and finally his understanding of German idealism and Schulte's critiques, and based on them, provide an interpretation of Fichte's philosophy that the readers are able to understand his philosophy in the context of socio-political history and the thought of his time.

Man is a communicative being and the meaningfulness of his life can be explained according to his relation with himself, God, the world and other people. In Eckhart's thought, the highest level of the meaning of human life is realized in his union with divine truth. Eckhart considers selfishness to be the biggest obstacle to the union between man and God. In his opinion, overcoming selfishness is achieved through a kind of cognitive uplifting and complete understanding of man's existential poverty; in the sense that all existence is nothing and all that exists is God. He believes that achieving this stage is possible only by removing all personal attachments. In Eckhart's viewpoint, removing the dependencies or the worldly attachments brings love to the Origin (mabda‘) and this love strengthens the will to forsake other dependencies and as the will becomes stronger, the love becomes more intense to the extent that, at last, man would reach the level of complete detachment as well as union with God.

Reappearance (ẓuhūr) is one of the important topics of Mahdism, which consists of two types of issues: internal and external. Internal issues are related to the notion of the nature of reappearance, and external issues deal with the peripheral issues of reappearance, such as the conditions of reappearance, the function of reappearance, the scope of reappearance, and the role of people in reappearance. In this article, the author examines two issues, namely the conditions of reappearance and the role of people in its fulfillment, with a descriptive and analytical approach.The conditions of reappearance are formed by the fulfillment of three wills, namely, the will of God, the will of the Imam, and the will of mankind, and the occurrence of the reappearance is dependent upon their fulfillment. God's will is the efficient cause (‘llat-i fā‘lī) and the two wills of the Imam and mankind play the role for the preparing cause (‘llat-i mu‘idda). Since the above three wills are known as the conditions of reappearance, their fulfillment in a collective general way is propitious of the realization of reappearance. The main problem that this research seeks to answer is separating human will from the system of reappearance conditions and considering the role of people as ineffective in the reappearance process. Undoubtedly, if this problem remains unanswered and the role of people in the event of reappearance is considered ineffective and insignificant, the feeling of despair, hopelessness, stagnation and impassivity will prevail over people.

One of the important fields in which philosophy can play a useful and effective role is sociology. With this objective and with logico-philosophical analysis and attesting to some Qur'anic verses, the present article is intended to answer the question: "What relationship is there between the progress of a society and the people's observance of the rule of law in that society?" In this regard, first we will analyze and explain the permeation of ratio-creational laws in the entire universe and after that we will prove that in the society – regardless of whether we consider "society" as having a real or a nominal existence – the ratio-creational laws prevail. Proposing the issue of prevalence of the creational laws in the society is logically contingent upon the examination of the different views and the refutations and confirmations presented about the type of composition of the society and its existence as being nominal or real, which is a part of the present article. The main claim of the current research is that: firstly, one of the ratio-creational laws governing the society is: "The formation and continuation of the society without contractual laws is rationally impossible". Secondly, and based on this very ratio-creational law, one can discover another ratio-creational law that governs the society. This law is: "The progress of a society without observing the rule of law by the people of that society is rationally impossible." This article is intended to prove these two propositions with a descriptive-analytical method and the collection of library contents.