A Comparative Analysis of 'Epistemology of the Nafs (Soul) in Masnavi' and 'post-Cartesian Thoughts of Spinoza

This article is a comparative study of the “epistemology of the soul" from the viewpoints of Molāna and Spinoza. Research hypotheses indicate that there are substantial similarities between the mystical attitude of Molāna which is based on the “unity of the existence” and Spinoza's believe in “the unity of the essence”. Despite Spinoza's adherence to the rationalism of Descartes, he had, unlike pluralist Descartes, a unitarian look in the field of the “essence of the existence”, that had common features with Molāna thoughts in Masnavi Ma’navi. For this reason, bearing in mind the hypothesis that nafs, is theoretically as well as practically, distinct from the soul, Spinoza's trans- cartesian attitudes in epistemology of the soul became the subject of comparison. This research which is in analytic-descriptive method, is done as an interdisciplinary comparative study, both philosophically and mystically, in response to the problems of: what is the nature and origin of the nafs? How can be controlled its insurrections? And what is the degree of the effect of djabr va ikhtyār (fatalism and free will) on the emergence of the selfish appetites? It concluded that there is not significant differences between two attitudes in nature, states and acts of the soul and its levels, restraint manner and the relation of the soul with human will, except in their methodology.