فصلنامه فلسفه دین
سال سیزدهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 30، بهار 1395)

Spinoza thinks that God is the only existent substance and all things are manifestations of it. In his view the manifestations of God in all infinite worlds is by his attributes which are infinite numerally and by their natures and they are united with his nature. In this world his nature has manifested by two attributes: thought and extension. Spinoza’s conception of God is so ambiguous that about it too many discussions took place between his commentators. Because of this he was called deist by some, atheist by some and pantheism by some. These paradoxical interpretations made it important to analyze his conception of God. There are two important theories in regard to the relation between nature and attributes of God: the theory of collection, according to which God’s essence is a collection of distinct attributes, and the theory of totality according to which God’s essence is identical with totality of his non-discrete attributes. This article tries to assess these deferent interpretations of Spinoza’s conception of God.

This paper examines Abd al-Razzaq Lahij's view on divine wisdom. According to him, divine wisdom is the same as divine purposefulness, that is, God's actions are always purposeful. But these purposes, in fact, belong to the creatures, since when a purpose is achieved, a need of the purpose-setter would be satisfied, but God is all-rich, i.e. God has no need at all. Lahiji presents two arguments in favor of his claim; one is based on intrinsic good or evil in actions, and the other is based on God's free will. This paper begins with assessment of Lahiji's perspective on "purposefulness", how it is connected to "free will" and "satisfying the needs of the purpose-setter", and the consequence would be that, 1) achieving a purpose does not satisfy only the needs of the purpose-setter, but might also do the other's needs, and 2) the mechanism of setting a purpose ought not to be tied to either free will or determinism. Then, Lahiji's two arguments are going to be analyzed. The result will be that both arguments are weak and cannot be used in defense of divine wisdom, and basically, such arguments are unnecessary to use to attribute wisdom to God.

Instrumentalism (in the science) refers to a view that considers scientific theories as nothing more than instruments for prediction. Sometimes the traces of this attitude have been searched in the writings of Plato and Aristotle; but mostly the pioneers of the theory have been thought to be the priests who regarded the scientific propositions as mere hypothesis, in order to defend religious doctrines. George Berkeley and Pierre Duhem, among others, can be accounted the defenders of this view. Most of the new instrumentalists choose this approach only in theoretical terms; they do not regard scientific laws as instrumental. Instrumentalism has close relationship with many other scientific schools of philosophy (like positivism, conventionalism, pragmatism, and linguistic analysis school) and they have bargain with each other. Some people resorting to this theory, resolve the apparent conflict between science and religion by saying that the scientific propositions (as opposed to religious doctrines) represent no reality at all.

Theistic Story in the history of the Jewish people who are categorized in the
Abrahamic or monotheistic religions , is a path through the ups and downs that embrace from Animism and natural spirits belief until dissolve all the gods in one God. The history of the Jewish people of the God started of Deism thought nomadic Hebrews and continues to the God of Moses, the Israelites introduced and eventually picked up the Jewish commentators like Maimonides and Spinoza. For these reasons, the story of Israel and their theistic course a very important part in the verses of the holy Quran to be allocated and God in this Scripture vicissitudes and distortions of the people in his theistic trends in personal and social development is concerned as well as, and It invites people to learn from the strengths and weaknesses. The main result in this research is the survey of internal factors such as myths, ethnic believes , religious distortion and external factors such as other nations influence on the process of theistic in this religion and it's reflection in the Bible and the holy Quran .

The role of reason in the understanding of the religion is one of the important issues in religious studies and philosophy of religion. There are many questions in this area, Such as: What is the role of reason in understanding religion? Is the reason only an instrument for understanding religion or source? In Islamic thought, there is a variety of Approaches, including the formalism, rationalism of the Mutazilites and transcendent reason (Shiism). Formalism, both from some Sunnis (Ahle-Hadith) and Shiite (Akhbaris), focus on the religious aspects and opposes any rational methods in the understanding of the religion. Rationalist Mutazilites (both old and new Mutazila) believe that reason itself can understand all the content of religion Moderate rationalism (Shiite reason or transcendental reason) believes that there is coordination and Compatibility between reason, religion and Sharia and Also believe that the reason is a source of understanding of the religion and the instrument to understand it This article attempts to shows the position of reason (as a tool and source) in each part of the religion (beliefs, laws, ethics, etc.).

The phenomenon of revelation and its explanation is one of the most important topics in the field of divine religions. The mysterious and supernatural nature of this phenomenon has led to various approaches being proposed by religious scholars. In Christian theology, there are two general approaches to explaining revelation: propositional and non-propositional. According to the first approach, the revelation includes the awareness that is manifested in the form of terms and propositions, while in the second approach revelation is not a kind of proposition but means disclosure. This paper aims to investigate, analyze and criticize both approaches in order to determine their defects and deficiencies. The reduction of revelation to the status of mere proposition in the propositional approach, disregarding the principles of anthropology and ontology, reduction of revelation to the low level of human experience in non-prepositional approach and neglecting linguistics in the realm of the religionlanguage are among the most important defects of Christian theology in explaining the phenomenon of revelation.

Since Plato is regarded as the first philosopher who started writing on aesthetics and impacted upon artistic aesthetics following him, a review of his perspective on artistic aesthetic is of crucial importance. Although fine arts in its current form have not existed at the time of Plato, his ideas could be discovered from what he has sporadically expressed on fine arts. There are two viewpoints on Plato's perspective on fine arts. Some believe he has been for arts and have tried to justify his explicit objections to art. Some others have known him against art. This study reviews Plato's ideas on art irrespective of the views of his opponents and proponents. The findings show he is neither an absolute proponent nor an absolute opponent of fine arts. That is, Plato believes in two types of art: Value art and non-value art. He expresses some features for each type and regards absolute aesthetic (i.e. having a divine origin) as the most distinctive feature differentiating these two types of art.

This article investigates and analyses philosophical and theological foundations of social management in view of Islam. In view of Islam and reason, human being is social and only he attains to happiness and perfection in society. In every society, including Islamic one, decomposes without of government. Every government depends on two chief bases: law and management. In view of rational and religious foundations, manager or leader of islamic society, must have derisable management and perfections and virtues in order to can attain society to happiness this article discusses four rational and philosophical principles of islamic and social mangement. And then, it points to characteristics of Islamic manager in base of quranic verses and traditions of infaliable Imaws. They consist of: 1. Faith, 2. Piety, 3. Justice, 4. Ethical Perfections, 5. Management, 6. Taking Counsel with Persons, 7. Selecting him in Base of Votes Peples, 8. Defender of rights of human, 9. Keeper of Public treasury, 10. devout, 11. Keeper of human dignity. In attention to philosophical and theolpgical foundations of islamic management and characteristics of manager, every rational person has correct idea, he accepts it.