Explaining the Trans-categorial Truth of Conceptual Knowledge in Transcendent Philosophy

In this article, the ontology of knowledge is discussed in a Sadrian approach. According to Mullā Ṣadrā, knowledge is not of any essential kind and does not belong to the category of relation or psychic quality and does not fall under any category, rather, it is an existential and trans-categorial truth. The commentators of Transcendent philosophy have different views in explaining the trans-categorial truth of knowledge. According to some later commentators, the existentiality of knowledge means that it is of the type of external existence, not mental, and its abode is in the soul; from this point of view, cognitive forms and mental beings are not knowledge, but the shadowy existence of knowledge. Another group does not consider the difference between knowledge and the mental form to be actual, but deems it as a mental consideration and maintains that the mental form is knowledge in terms of existence, and is the true known object in terms of essence. Others consider knowledge as an illuminative relation and therefore think of it as an existential thing capable to create a side of relation, and consider cognitive and mental forms as the results of the soul illumination. Examining these explanations and their strengths and weaknesses, one can say that if we rely on the real distinction and existential multiplicity between knowledge and the cognitive form to explain the trans-categorial truth of knowledge, we will encounter problems and ambiguities. To solve these problems, this should be explained in a different way. Given that the illuminative relation is an existential thing, this explanation for the trans-categorial and existential truth of knowledge is more comprehensive so that we consider knowledge or cognitive form to be the result of the soul illumination