The Sensation and Perception in Psychology in Comparison to Viewpoints of Mullasadra: Nature, Processes and Extension

We often articulate such sentences as, sky is blue, fire is very hot, ice is cold and so on. If someone asks how we really obtain these cognitive experiences as conscious matters, the answer appears to be simple even trivial. Because we see the sky, sense the temperature or the flame and ice, and tase the honey. In other words, such experiences obtained through senses. But the problem is not as simple as appears at first glance. That is ,in fact, the problem popularized under the title of perception. Then the question is, How perception psychologically occurs for us as human beings? What is Islamic views referring to the phenomenon? Aiming to examine the subject, we studied “sensation and perception in psychology in comparison to viewpoints of Mulla Sadra: nature, processes and extension. To do so, at first, we have referred to recent psychological sources on sensation and perception as Goldstein E (2017), Kalat (2017) and Atkinson & Hilgard (2009) and gathered up the last psychological views about the subject matter. Then the main books of Mullasadra such as Asfar, Mafatiholgheib and Shavahedorobobeia were searched and the author’s viewpoints on sensation and perception collected.

Content analysis is a research tool used to determine the presence of certain words, themes, or concepts within some given qualitative data (i.e. text). Using content analysis, researchers can quantify and analyze the presence, meanings and relationships of such certain words, themes, or concepts. Using content analytical method, the following collusions obtained.

1- Majority of psychologists believe that perception even its last steps, i.e. conscious cognitive experience is the same cerebral activities; 2- Perception occurs in seven steps ranging from facing an external stimulus to transformation of it into conscious experience, and finally doing appropriate behavior; 3- Perception is limited to sensory perception and there are no other types of perception for human beings; 4- In the contrast, according to Mullasadra, perception is restricted to the soul which is nonmaterial essence and physical stuffs including brain and its activities are not capable to produce conscious experience. Perception is creation of a mental form by the soul in accordance to the changes happened in the brain. The created form is the fact that perceived by soul, not a part of the body as brain; 5- Sensory perception takes place in five steps from facing external stimulus to creating a mental form by soul and its interpretation and analysis; 6- Perception in human beings is not limited to sensory ones, furthermore there are intuitive , narrative and rational perceptions. Not only is there rational perception, but also it is the basis for development of other types of perceptions.

Perception happens into two general stages: first is what occurs in the cerebral system as physical basis for the process, including entrance of light into the eyes, formation of reticular picture, electrochemical transformations and transmitting neural massages to the perception foci in the brain. According to psychologists in particular biopsychologists such as James Kalat and others, these processes equal the very perception and conscious experience. Based on Islamic sources especially viewpoints of Mulla Sadra, however, these are the only prerequisites for sensation and perception. Perception happens as second general stage, not in the brain but for another, fundamental component of the organism, which is nonmartial, the soul. Soul is the essence which conceives the changes in its body and transforms them into a special state that we call it perception. In fact, it is a miraculous matter that we couldn’t explore its mystery up to now.