Theory of Meaning from Allāma Tabātabāī’s Point of View

In the first half of the 20th century, the ontological approach in explaining philosophical issues was first reduced to an epistemological approach and then to a linguistic approach. The experts of the recent approach claimed that the meaningfulness and truth of propositions can be explained by relying on theories of meaning. As a result, the discussion about being and it’s judgments changed to a discussion about language and its meaning and what it is.In this article, we tried to answer the question of what is the theory of meaning in the Allāma Tabātabāī’s, after defining the theory of meaning and the outline of theories of meaning in the West? And does this theory has the ability to answer the problems of the theory of meaning or not?Allāma Tabātabāī, in discussing the primacy and priority of existence over essence or meaning, basically considers it impossible the realization of any meaning, both verbal and non-verbal,in reality, and on the other hand, he proves that meaning is the same mental form and its place is in the mind. Therefore, it can be concluded that his theory is closely related to the imaginary theory of meaning, but it does not have the problems of the apprehension in mind theory of meaning that is discussed in the West, and through the foundations of Islamic philosophy, such as the discovery and recital of the mental form, it answers them.