Explaining the Theory of Meta-History in Henry Corbin's Philosophy

Henry Corbin (1903-1978), the French philosopher, is the first western interpreter of Suhrawardi’s philosophy. His thoughts are focused on the fields of t’awil (esoteric interpretation), phenomenology, and the theory of meta-history. The present study aims to explain and examine this theory and its impact on Corbin’s study of Iranian-Islamic philosophy and gnosis. In the realm of theoretical studies of history, the philosophy of history derives from philosophical studies and, accordingly, investigates history and historical events and incidents. In Corbin’s view, it is not possible to investigate the reporting of the history of philosophy based on the theory of the philosophy of history because one cannot describe historical events based on cause-effect relationships. Corbin’s view in this regard is rooted in theology. In fact, he has employed a theological approach in order to interpret the relationship between history and human beings; the philosophical periods of ancient Iran; Islamic philosophy and, particularly, the philosophical school of Suhrawardi (540-587 AH), and gnosis. He has attributed the issues related to the mentioned fields to the world of Ideas. Corbin benefitted from the theories of Edmund Husserl (1859-1928) and Martin Heidegger (1889-1996) in order to pose the theory of meta-history. The present paper is a first attempt at examining and analyzing Henry Corbin’s theory of meta-history.