A Comparative Study of the Connection of Virtue, Intuitive Knowledge, and Goodness in the Thoughts of Plato and Mulla Sadra

The relation between virtue, intuitive knowledge, and goodness is one of the basic pivots of philosophy of ethics. The kind of outlook on this relation would naturally lead to some outcomes concerning scientism or pragmatism or adopting a third viewpoint. In this field, Plato – the great Greek philosopher – and Mullah Sadra – the great thinker of Islamic philosophy – both have an exclusive outlook about virtue, which confirms a close relation between ethics, epistemology, and ontology. While studying the philosophical principles of Plato (including the idea theory) and Mulla Sadra (including the analogical gradation of existence as well as a specific perspective on soul and its ontogenetic motion) and with the use of an analytical-descriptive method, this research is intended to express the similarities and correspondence of their opinions and explore and analyze the differences existing in this respect. By expounding the notion of virtue and structural analytical of opinions as well as noticing the different philosophical principles of the two thinkers, one can find out the existential identity of intuitive knowledge, virtue, and goodness. The unity of the above three categories would be with an emphasis on the centrality of intuitive knowledge and its conceptual command on virtue and goodness; in such a way that the actualization of intuitive knowledge means attaining virtue and appearance of goodness.