Contexts and Causes of Posing Inconsistent Philosophical Theories in Mulla Sadra s Works

In his various works, Mulla Sadra has presented different views concerning certain philosophical issues which cannot be gathered in a single philosophical system. In this paper, with reference to such issues, the writers have examined the causes of these different views. For a more thorough study of the related cases, they have investigated different theories including the trans-substantial motion, the mediating movement, the cause of time, the nature of knowledge, God’s knowledge of particulars, divine activity, the cause-effect relation, the criterion for the dependence of possible beings on the Necessary Being, meanings of quiddity, the quality of attribution of existence to quiddity, unity of being, immateriality, and createdness of the soul. A study of these issues indicate that the existence of different views in Mulla Sadra’s works is rooted in one of the following factors: 1) a change in his philosophical theories and ideas over time (initially, he believed in the principiality of quiddity, then in the principiality of existence and gradedness of being, and finally in the individual unity of existence); 2) observing the instructional aspect in expressing his views, 3) posing his theories based on different principles (people, graded unity of being, and individual unity of existence); 4) trying to compose a pseudo-encyclopedic series of books on philosophical discussions.