A Critical Study on Regarding the Substance as a Genus in Sadraean and Neo-Sadraean Philosophy

The present paper deals with the issue whether the concept of substance, can be considered as a genus and constituent of substantial species or it is an abstract and non- essential concept. Most of Muslim philosophers have defended the genus of substance, but some like Fakhr- e Razi maintain that substance is not a genus and constituent for substantial species, Mulla Sadra has advocated the substance as a genus and widely criticized the arguments which stated by the opponents. In this paper, first of all we will report the most important arguments of the opponents and then review Sadra's critics against them in detail to show that not only his criticism has not reduced the strength of its arguments, but also in many places, he has unconsciously strengthened the claims of the opponents. In the next step, two arguments supporting the genus of substance, one of them is demonstrated by Sadra and the other by Allameh Tabatabaeiare, are explained and then they put into assessment. finally, it is stated that the theory of regarding the substance as a genus has not been supported by any strong argument, whereas there are considerable arguments for denying that. As a result, we will survey that denying the genus of the substance will be led to the positive philosophical consequences, three of them will be discussed as following: a) new categorization of substances. b) removing ambiguity from substantiality of soul and the other simple things. c) eliminating the vagueness of substantiality of the Necessary being.