فصلنامه آینه معرفت
پیاپی 39 (تابستان 1393)

The existence or non-existence of metaphysical statements in religion constitutes an important issue in religious studies. Mullā Sadrā’s writings are replete with attention to this issue. While he elaborates the status and role of the intellect in the realm of religion, he speaks of both the lower levels of the intellect that fail to comprehend religion and the obstacles in the path of intellectual perception of religion as well as the circumstances under which this form of perception becomes actualized. He challenges the ideas of those who go to extremes in holding that the intellect plays a crucial role in religion and refute the existence of metaphysical statements in religion (Muʹtazilite). In a detailed discussion, he also reveals some metaphysical statements, but at the same time, challenges and disagrees strongly with the ideas of some individuals like esotericists who go to extremes in their theological ideas. The present paper seeks to explore Mullā Sadrā’s views on the metaphysical statements of religion.

Ethical theories are often divided into three groups: Virtue theories, Teleology and Deontology. The Ethical theories of the majority of Islamic philosophers can be considered as Virtue Ethics. Mulla Sadra is one of the greatest Islamic philosophers so it is of prime importance to examine his ethical theory coherently. To this end, the present paper starts with this proposition that Mulla Sadra’s ethical theory is a version of virtue ethics. He begins his ethical theory with the happiness (eudemonia) concept. On his own philosophical groundwork, Mulla Sadra, considers being and its perception as happiness. The felicity of each being depends on its level of existence. In broad terms, he defines happiness as the achievement of ontological perfection by each being consistent with its intrinsic demands. From Mulla Sadra’s point of view, real happiness for human beings is theoretical wisdom, knowledge of facts, observation of ideas and rational luminous beings and alliance with active intellect, but above all the perception of Divine existence and His meeting. But the achievement of this rational happiness is impossible without body happiness defined as self-purification, inner catharsis, control of animal forces by intellectual faculty and being attributed by the property of justice. He accept Aristotelian moderation rule which puts every virtue between two extremes: excess and defect. Mulla Sadra, similar to most Islamic philosophers, believes in the four principal virtues and the eight principal vices.

Most of Moslem philosophers believe in foundationalism in the realm of ideas as well as propositions. In Islamic foundationalism pertaining to propositions, they are divided into two main kinds: obvious and theoretical. The obvious ones are the propositions which do not need inferential reasoning; while, the theoretical ones are based on the obvious ones and should ultimately lead to them. The only way of justifying theoretical propositions is the proof (Borhan). Lately, foundationalism has faced several challenges. The present paper is an attempt to inquire whether these challenges can be taken up by providing convincing answers. The method adopted in this paper is philosophical reasoning and analysis. The conclusion is that Islamic philosophy is of such a capacity and integrity which can take up these challenges in an appropriate way.

The present paper is concerned with the relationship between theology and tradition (Hadith) in "revealed theology". The methodology of theology in general and revealed theology in particular is a recent issue which has received scant attention. The importance of methodological studies can only be understood when its most important outcome, that is, the exploration of “theological inference and its principles" is well realized. For Sayed ibn Tavos, tradition is the most important source for the study of religion. As a characteristic thinker, he investigates the theological issues based on traditional sources and uses some elicitation and anecdotal methods such as: emphasis on the verbal principles, validation of content and not narrators, combined understanding of Quran and Hadith, deep and strong insight of Hadith, paraphrase of definite contradictions of religion and the like. The present paper presents the two key elements of revealed theology, that is, the method of invoking theological Hadith and understanding of it in the thought of Sayed ibn Tavos and then refers to some of the samples of applied revealed evidence in theology.

Nowadays the world proceeds apace toward the future, and this makes any thinker ponder over the end of the world. The outcome has been the formation of different eschatological views among which some have been proposed by contemporary western thinkers. Of course, some ideas about the end of the world held by theistic and nontheistic religions have a long history. The present study is aimed at conducting a comparative study of the origins of these views. To this end, it first states the major views of contemporary western thinkers including McLuhan (GlobalVillage), Huntington (The Clash of Civilization), Toffler (The Third Wave) and Fukuyama (The End of History). Among the religions, the focus of the discussion will be on Islam specifically the escatological views of Imamiyyah Shi’a. The results of the comparative study show that the views of contemporary western thinkers stands on humanism, liberalism, secularism, and promiscuity; while, the views of Imamiyyah Shi’a are monotheistic and theocentric.

The problem of relative or absolute moral consequences is one of the most important issues in moral philosophy. The adoption of one or the other has important consequences for the formation of a moral system. One of the issues that underlies the illusion of moral relativism is the problem of inconsistent assignments. As for the fact that moral assignments are related to human practice, and human behavior in social situations is very complex, it is likely that conflict arise in practice. Accepting the absolute nature of moral propositions, the present study tries to examine some of the most common ways of looking at conflict resolution from the point of view of Islamic scholars. The proposed solution is that a distinction should be made between the filed of moral philosophy with a methodology and an agenda of issues and the sociology of ethics as a different filed of study with a different methodology. The question of whether moral issues are absolute or relative is related to the realm of moral philosophy while the issue of conflict of assignments is related to the field of sociology of ethics. Therefore, we should not infer relativity of ethics from a reliance on conflict of assignments. But for conflict resolution we can rely on survey results and implications of moral action by reference to practice. The important point is that to be successful in resolving ethical conflicts a school of ethics should put emphasis on both obligation and outcome or duty and end. The philosophy of ethics with an Islamic approach has the capacity to deal with this issue.

"Silence of text" is the basis for the theory of “contraction and expansion of Shariah” and this idea is based on the assumption of “being an absolute consumer of religious knowledge”. Soroush, like Gadamer and Derrida, adopts an audience-centered approach in answering the question of: Where does the meaning of the text come from? His answer is that the meaning of the text resides in the understanding that emerges from the audience’s interpretation of the text individually or through question and answer. This idea has a number of consequences including relativism, violation of order in sending messengers and the revelation of the holy book, and the negation of the possibility of achieving wisdom. The present paper aims at delineating the origins of the idea of "silence of text" taking a hermeneutical perspective.