An Analysis of Free Will as the Knowledge of the Agent and its Relation to "Practical Knowledge" in Allameh Tabatabai's Viewpoint

The relation of science and practice is one of the most important questions in the field of anthropology. Dividing the agent into with knowledge and without and taking into consideration the role of knowledge in issuing an act, Muslim philosophers and theologians have explained it mostly with an ontological approach though and thus failed to explain how its role is. Along with his definition of the reality of free will basing it on the knowledge of the agent from one side, and his explanation for "practical knowledge" from another side, Allameh Tabatabai did not fail to explain how knowledge plays its role in issuing an act thus he proposed a fairly comprehensive analysis of the relation between knowledge and practice. He believes that free will, as the agent's knowledge, which is involved in the process of issuing an act, is of the "practical knowledge" type, and is concerned with the agent's benefits and harms. Knowing the benefits and harms of things is different from what they are (theoretical wisdom) and different from their intrinsic goodness and evilness (practical wisdom). This knowledge is rooted in the agent's inner feelings and emotions; these feelings and emotions may refer to the two states of agreeable and disagreeable. Therefore, practical knowledge is quite personal and may thus be different for every particular agent's point of view.