An Alternative for Distinction between Primary Essential Attribution and Common Technical Attribution in Resolving Philosophical Issues

Presenting a distinction between ‘primary’ and ‘common’ predication by Mulla Sadra resolved many philosophical problems including the issue known as mental existence. However, it raised some problems itself. To resolve the latter issues, some efforts were made including separation of primary predication as a qualification of proposition and primary predication as a qualification of subject. For the author of the present article, this separation is not so precise, because the primary predication as a qualification of subject is indeed not the so called logical predication; rather, it is some division of subject in two bases. In this article, we present a new and very simple method which can substitute the separation of primary and common predicate with no difficulty. This solution is, in short, that in proposition, the attribute is from the essential qualities, states, and features of the subject and must inevitably be abstracted from a certain subject and be attributed to the same subject, not to be abstracted from one subject and be attributed to another one. More precisely, when a subject is able to be considered from different angles, first it must be determined from which angle the subject is considered in a certain situation so that the predicate is abstracted from the subject in proportion to that very situation.
A predicate must not be abstracted from one subject on one basis and be attributed to it on another basis. In his book entitled Sharh Manzuma, Murteza Mutahhari has dealt with this subject: “Is the difference between primary essential predication and common technical predication in the predication itself or there is indeed no difference in predication at all and this difference returns to the difference in subject?” One of the important findings of this study is the distinction between two modes of narrating mental conceptions; that is, narration of the mind from the object itself and narration of the mind from the mind – a distinction that is one of the main elements of the new solution.