Distinguishing Factors for Triple Intelligibles: An Analysis of Motahhari's Criticisms of Mulla Sadra's and Hajji Sabzevari's Views

The intelligibles are divided into primary, secondary philosophical, and secondary logical intelligibles. Mulla Sadra differentiates between the three according to the process of abstraction of general concepts from particulars as well as their position in the mind. Hajji Sabzevari, however, distinguishes between them on the basis of objectivity or subjectivity of prosody and ascription. On the other hand, Motahhari introduces another distinguishing factor, an ontological one, on the basis of Mulla Sadra’s theory of copulative and non-copulative types of existence. Studying Mulla Sadra’s and Hajji Sabzevari’s factors, the authors of this article prove that they refer to a single fact, and the ontological factor is the combination of the two. They also seek to analyze Motahhari’s criticisms of Mulla Sadra’s and Hajji Sabzevari’s factors in order to demonstrate that they are often irrelevant.