Justifying Epistemological Theory of Mullā Sadrā

In Islamic philosophy before Mullā Sadrā epistemology was not principal concern of philosophers, and what they have said in this matter was in relation to other problems. First Mullā Sadrā take this problem seriously and after examining sayings of prior philosophers, theorizes about it. Epistemological theory of Mullā Sadrā consist of three fundamental elements: scientific forms or images (object per se), the subject (soul), and mutual relations that scientific forms acquire in process of knowing. On the one hand, scientific forms represent beyond themselves and are intermediaries of our knowledge of other things, and on the other hand, they are in relation to the subject and are acquired in soul. Mullā Sadrā has novelties about all above-mentioned elements, and from all of them has made a novel and powerful theory of knowledge. While Mullā Sadrā theorizing is coherent with his system of philosophy, his theory lacks coherent justification. This diverge view of commentators on his theory. Assumption of this essay is that Mullā Sadrā system of philosophy has necessary tools and possibilities for justifying his theory. Hence, in this essay, at first we briefly introduce epistemological theory of Mullā Sadrā and compare it with theories of prior muslim philosophers,and then reconstruct its reasons, It must to be said that part of Mullā Sadrā theory that was more challenging, ie, relation of scientific forms with soul, is principal concern of this essay.