The nature of death from the perspective of Mulla Sadra and medical science

Background and Purpose:

Death and its associated challenges are one of today's most contentious topics. Numerous philosophical and medical studies have been conducted on this subject. This research aims to explore death from Mulla Sadra's standpoint and medical science's perspective (traditional and modern).

The research approach is comparative, and a comparison between Mulla Sadra and medical viewpoints in this subject is conducted by consulting library materials and understanding the nature of death.

Medical science bases its explanations of death on bodily symptoms (acceptance cause). Modern medicine defines death as "the cessation of breathing", "the cessation of the heart" and "the cessation of blood flow throughout the body". Death is defined in traditional medicine as loss of innate heat. It articulates the acceptance cause of death in Mulla Sadra's philosophy; it does not explain the reality nor the necessity of death. According to his theory of natural death, the human soul attains completion by substantive movement, and when it attains its appropriate perfection via the body, it departs and death occurs. Thus, in Mulla Sadra's opinion, natural death is the outcome of self-perfection. It is a metaphysical solution to the issue of death and a genuine justification for its necessity.

Mulla Sadra's discussion of death is meta-empirical in that he uses logic to give a novel interpretation of human mortality. The reality and necessity of death become evident in this sense, but the medical science approach is based on experience and presenting the most likely cause of death, never explaining the necessity of death. As a result, the two do not share the same viewpoint when it comes to death.