The Idea of Gradationality of Acquired Knowledge Based on the Sadrian Principles

Based on gradation in existence and the similitude of existence and knowledge, which are among the most important ontological foundations of Sadrian philosophy, "gradation in knowledge", which is one of the most important results and branches of Mullā Ṣadrā's philosophy and has significant epistemological consequences, will be a reasonable and defensible issue. Gradationality of human presential knowledge is a certain and accepted entity; as these kinds of knowledge are derived from the level and rank of human existence, and the higher the superiority of this level and rank would be, naturally, the higher would also be the superiority of his presential knowledge, which is of existential similitude. But according to the common view, human acquired knowledge are ungradational and indescribable in terms of intensity and weakness; that is because this knowledge does not arise from the level and rank of human existence; rather, they arise from imaginations or concepts that are compatible with the capacity of the external reality, and there is no room for gradation in imaginations. However, the present research claims that according to the principles and some findings of Sadrian philosophy, it may be possible to raise the idea of ​​gradationality of human acquired knowledge and propose some justifications for it. To this end and with the aim of explaining the gradation in acquired knowledge from an ontological and epistemological point of view, the authors have addressed the quality of permeation of gradation in the various types of perceptions and attestations.