Foundationalism in Mull‚ Ṣadr‚ís Epistemology

Foundationalism is a major early theory concerning epistemic justification, which has the capacity to resist against many rival approaches which lead to skepticism and relativism. Given his principles such as primacy of existence and the relation between epistemology and ontology in his view, Mull‚ Ṣadr‚ís brand of foundationalism has many advantages. In this re- search, we adopt a descriptive-analytic method to offer a comprehensive consideration and analysis of foundationalism in the views of this promi- nent philosopher. We conclude that, firstly, Mull‚ Ṣadr‚ís epistemology is quite influenced by his ontology; secondly, the process of knowledge ac- quisition and justification can be explained only by distinguishing differ- ent stages of knowledge given the arcs of ascent and descent; thirdly, knowledge by acquisition is an act and thus a manifestation of the subjectís immaterial soul. Hence, knowledge by acquisition goes back to knowledge by acquaintance; and finally, epistemic justification which solely applies to assents (taṣdÓq‚t) is accounted for by reducing theoretical assents to self-evident assents and the latter to knowledge by presence.