نشریه خردنامه صدرا
پیاپی 82 (زمستان 1394)

Aristotle’s view regarding the emptiness or non-emptiness of the terms of propositions has been interpreted in two ways. In one of them, the terms of propositions always include an existing individual or some existing individuals and are non-empty. Therefore, in negative propositions, the collection of the individuals of the subject is never an empty collection either. Hence, there is no difference between negative and affirmative propositions regarding the necessity of the existence of individuals for their subjects. According to the other interpretation, in any proposition, whether negative or affirmative, its components should be first conceived and come into being through a mental existence. Then, if the proposition is an affirmative one, in addition to this mental concept, there should be an existing or supposedly existing individual to receive an affirmative judgment. However, in case of a negative proposition, except the mental existence of the proposition, which is necessary for passing judgment, there is no need for an existing or supposedly existing individual to receive the predicate attribute. Hence, there is a difference between affirmative and negative propositions in this regard. In his interpretation of negative propositions, Khwajah Nasir Tusi has paid attention to both aspects and considered each of the two interpretations to be correct in its own right. The first interpretation is ruled as a correct one given the propositions which are used in different sciences – and these propositions always depend on external truths. Moreover, the second interpretation is correct due to the absoluteness aspect of negative propositions, and also because a non-existent entity cannot be qualified with any quality, including the predicate attribute, since it is non-existent.

In theoretical gnosis, based on the principle of the oneness of being, it is only the Truth Who is one and from Whom a single entity called the first emanated and Muhammedan truth is emanated. On the other hand, the Divine Names (and their hidden and objective loci of manifestations) are in conflict with each other because of their limitations, and the name of Allah and His loci of manifestation, the Muhammedan truth, establish balance and order between their names and manifestations. The order and balance among the conflicts of the hidden manifestations of names are established genetically through the fixed essence of the Muhammedan truth, whereas the same is done among the conflicts of objective manifestations through the external essence of the Muhammedan truth in the form of religious laws. The purpose of religious laws is to have people follow the Muhammedan religion in order to free themselves from conflicts and limitations and attain the level of limitlessness. Whenever they attain such a level, they unite with the Muhammedan truth, which is the manifestation locus of the name of God. It is through this union that they can dominate the realm of being and begin the act of creation there with the permission of the Truth and turn into a mediator between the Truth and creation in the same way that God’s Name and the Muhammedan Truth were the mediators between the Truth and creation at the beginning of the creation of existents. Therefore, religious law-making ends in creation.

One of the important subjects which Ibn Arabi has tried to explain based on his own gnostic principles is the relationship between unity and plurality or the mode of the emanation of the plural from the one. While dealing with the levels of the world and referring to the place of presences and the degrees of being, he discusses the names and attributes of the Truth. Then, through explaining the emanation of names from essence and the relationships among them, he tries to explain the quality of the emanation of multiple names and the creation of existence from the simple essence of the one under the two titles of “community” and “opposition”. Given the depth and range of the discussion, the present paper shortly examines the problem of the community of names in Ibn Arabi’s philosophy following a descriptive method and under the subcategories of the meaning and plurality of names, community of names, and types of community and finally ends with a conclusion section. It is hoped that this endeavor can cast a light on the discussed issue.

The problems related the issue of evil, such as the ontological philosophy of evil-doers, obscene acts, and their true agent, are among the most important philosophical and kalami problems which have occupied the minds of human beings since long ago and prepared the ground for certain questions and suspicions regarding the most fundamental teachings of heavenly religions such as wisdom, justice, power, benevolence, and divine favor. In this way, some have developed the illusion of challenging the essence of God’s Existence or the absoluteness of His Attributes, such as knowledge, power, and benevolence. Accordingly, in the course of history, Muslim thinkers have tried to find some solutions to the questions and ambiguities regarding the problem of evil. The present paper is intended to introduce and evaluate the most important approaches presented by Muslim philosophers and mutikallimun in order to unravel the mystery of evil, explain a basic solution to the problem of evil in Islamic philosophy and kalam, and justify its compatibility with the existence and attributes of Almighty Necessary.

According to Farabi, knowledge means the acquisition of form by the mind or the intellect. He also considers the idea of imitative images as an artistic theory which an artist employs in creating images. Therefore, “from” is the link connecting Farabi’s epistemological and philosophical-artistic theories; without the existence of form, neither will knowledge be realized, nor imitative images will gain perfection. In this paper, the writer has tried to discover the relationship between Farabi’s epistemological and artistic theories following an analytic-descriptive method. In doing so, he considers the items listed below to be the most significant purpose that can be followed given their logical order in Farabi’s philosophy:1) Attaining the theory of knowledge
2) Discovering the theory of imitative images and disclosing the content of this theory
3) Understanding the relationship between these two theories
4) Demonstrating that the theory of imitative images is purely based on the formalistic theory of knowledge

In Mulla Sadra’s view, the existence of the effect is identical with relation and dependence on its cause. This theory has created noteworthy changes in dealing with philosophical problems, so that some of Mulla Sadra’s commentators have employed this philosophical theory in order to demonstrate certain philosophical and even kalami problems. In this paper, 14 problems which have been demonstrated based on the identity between the effect and relation have been compiled and critically explored. The writers finally conclude that the effect of this theory is accepted on 10 cases but rejected on the rest of them.

Farabi has assigned to leaders certain tasks such as the administration, training, and coaching of people, spreading virtues and morality in cities and among nations and having people accustomed to such affairs, paving the ground for legislation and enforcing the laws through imparting their benefits to people, and familiarizing people with theoretical issues and political knowledge. In his conceptualization of all the skills required for leadership, Farabi considers imagination and contentment, as the products of two arts of poetry and sermon to be the necessary conditions. This point can be explained by resorting to the instrumental and communicative dimensions of imagination and persuasion. These two concepts can contribute to the perfection of the end of the first leader and help him perform his duties in both conceptual and judgmental dimensions. This is because the perceptual weakness of the majority of people usually does not allow them to understand anything unless in the light of imagination and persuasion. Therefore, through knowing his subjects, a leader should use the correct way of confronting and interacting with them while employing an appropriate language for all levels of perception.