Specificity of Attaining the Station of Perfect Man in Mullā Ṣadrā’s View: Arguments and Consequences

One of the most comprehensive studies in the Sadrian philosophical system pertains to the field of anthropology. Moreover, one of the manifestations of the comprehensiveness of this discussion is dealing with the nature and place of the perfect Man in the order of being and its referents and worldly and other-worldly functions, which have been explored in several studies. However, what they have all neglected is the attention to the reasons of the specific nature of this station and its consequences in this school of philosophy. It seems that the attention to this point can grant more depth to anthropological discussions in the Transcendent Philosophy and Islamic philosophy. Accordingly, this study aims to provide an analytic account of the reason for the uniqueness of this station in Mullā Ṣadrā’s works. Here, while analyzing the factors affecting the emergence and perfection of human beings through difference of souls within the framework of apriori and aposteriori multiplicity, the authors explain the restriction of this station to quite a few people. The findings of this study indicate that the station of the perfect Man can be attained through the prophet’s invitation, obligation, courtesy, etc. Nevertheless, developing the highest levels of this station is not possible for all, which justifies the quality of the voluntary perfection of the Infallible Imāms (‘a) and the prophets (ṣ).