Molla sadra on «the aesthetic criteria in form and content»

Mulla Sadra has discussed about aesthetics in different sections in his writings. He introduces different criteria to recognize the beauty in different objects.The main question of this study is to find Mulla Sadra’s aesthetic criteria and to consider whether these criteria were superficial or were toward the content and inner side of the objects. To do so, with respect to the Mulla Sadra’s writings, we categorized aesthetic criteria into two category of criteria related to the form and those related to the content and then considered the relation between these two categories as well as their relation to the Mulla Sadra’a principle of wisdom. The result show that in Sadra’s view and according to the hierarchy of the being, the beauty of all being end in the absolute divine beauty and divine names are the cause of all beauty of the universe. The knowledge about these divine names can conduct human to the knowledge of the beauty of objects and as a result, all Mulla Sadra’s criteria related to the form and content refers to the divine names. In fact, beauty starts with divine names and reveals after passing the stages of gradation of existence and enters into the content first and then flows into the form and appearance of objects.