The Semantic Principles of Esoteric Interpretation in Mulla Sadra’s Philosophy

Ontology, especially the theory of ontology of language and meaning, in Mulla Sadra’s view affects his logic of analogical interpretation, and is, in some cases, modifying it. In Mulla Sadra’s view, everything, even the language and the letters, have higher celestial realities; and the language in its sublime reality is an objective and a mode of existence. This relationship is such that ontology and epistemology are joined and the universe is, from a viewpoint, considered the same as words. Mulla Sadra, on the one hand, has an existential view of language, and regards the universe analogous to words and language. By interpreting and explaining the meanings of the universe, the man expands it and discovers the analogical meanings. In Mulla Sadra’s philosophy, the meaning is a common thing and capable of being universal, and at the same time, has various layers all of which reach a transcendental truth. Understanding the meaning has various orders, and the deepest order of understanding is the intuitive understanding. In meaning and understanding, the lower orders are hints and prologues for higher orders – the very analogical interpretation. In this article, the semantic principles of analogical interpretation in Mulla Sadra’s philosophy have been extracted using a descriptive-analytical method, and the goal is to show the logic of Mulla Sadra’s analogical interpretations from the linguistic aspect.