The Status of Knowledge by Presence in Relation to Moral Knowledge and Practice from the Viewpoint of Sadr al-Mutalahin

The relationship between moral knowledge and practice in philosophy of ethics has always faced the important challenge of conscious moral error and the gap between moral knowledge and practice. Such a challenge has mainly led to attempts in resolving this gap by emphasizing other areas such as emotions and will of humans. From among Muslim thinkers, Mulla Sadra's existential approach towards all perfections, including ma’rifat (gnostic knowledge) and the good, is more adaptable to the Socratic approach to ma’rifat and excellence and, consequently, is exposed to the above-mentioned challenge. This research examines this issue by maintaining the priority of explaining the limitations of the two sides of the relationship over its principle and with an analytical-inferential view of the epistemological and axiological perspective of Sadr al-Mutalahin. According to Sadra's philosophy, due to the volitional nature of the moral practice and the precedence of will to perception of the self, the perception of the favorable and the universal favorable perceptions among them, these three perceptions are the source of motivation for the moral practice. On the other hand, the motivational effect of perceptions in relation to actions is proportional to their existential order, and the knowledge by presence, because of the objectivity with the known, has a higher existential power than acquired knowledge, and compared to it, it is more motivating than human action. Therefore, in case of a contradiction between the presential and acquired perceptions of the person in the above-mentioned perceptions, the presential knowledge act as a buffer between the motivation of the acquired knowledge and the moral action and prevent them from realizing the appropriate action. The result is that gradation in the relationship between knowledge and excellence is the result of neglecting knowledge by presence in the process of moral practicing and the solution is to pay attention to this issue.