فصلنامه معرفت فلسفی
سال هفدهم شماره 4 (پیاپی 68، تابستان 1399)

In Allama Tabatabai’s view, the foundation of knowledge by presence of the sensible world is based on two theories of ‘motion’ and ‘ideal world’. In explaining the knowledge system, these two theories are not only in harmony but also are two aspects of one single truth. The sensible world is the world of motion and motion is nothing but the existence of a mobile entity. The existence concomitant to actuality is unity and constancy. Accordingly, the mobile existent is both in reality and in its existence, while being gradual, single and having some constancy. We will show that the manifestation of mobile existence in time is a definite motion, and in the moment a mediating motion. The mobile existence (motion) is connected to the abstract and constant beings in unity and constancy, and creates the foundation of intuitive knowledge of sensible world. By proving the ideal world and considering its cause and effect relationship with the sensible world, as well as the existential conformity of those two worlds, a single and continuous existential spectrum of those worlds is created. In this existential spectrum, the ideal world is the inner state and the truth, and the sensible world is the outer state and the rarity. Interpretation of the causal system on the basis of the unity of truth and rarity makes it possible that the intuitive knowledge of the sensible world is obtained through the intuitive knowledge of the ideal world as the cause, the inner state and the truth of the sensible world. The mobile existence (sensible world) is the manifestation of the constant world (ideal world) in time.

One of the important philosophical foundations in producing religious knowledge is the epistemological foundation. The main questions in epistemology are related to the nature and possibility of cognition, its domain and types, its value and validity. The present study uses an analytical approach to studying documents to explore the role of philosophical foundations in producing religious knowledge with an emphasis on epistemological foundations in Allama Tabatabai’s view. The findings of the study, on the one hand, show that in Allama’s view, by cognition, we mean the knowledge and awareness in general. The possibility of cognition and realization of knowledge is axiomatic and needless of reasoning. The cognition tool is, in proportion to the domain of cognition, either the five sense, the intellect, the heart, the revelation, or the traditions. In the cognition domain, the non-sensible and immaterial things are there as well. The highest value of cognition is related to the certain cognition. On the other hand, it is possible to produce certain knowledge in general and religious knowledge in particular. Access to religious knowledge is not a dead end for the man. This is because all conventional tools of human knowledge are working for producing science, and in producing science, one can use any method in proportion to the subject, or even use various methods eclectically.

The moral evaluation of belief is one of the issues of discussion in epistemology. Accepting this fact is based on a proper approach in epistemology that allows the moral evaluation of belief. The Neo-Aristotelian approach in virtue-centered epistemology, now well-known with Mrs. Linda Zagzebski, has put forward some reasons for the superiority of that approach in explanation of aforementioned issue. These reasons are as follows: superiority of virtue-centered epistemology over other related approaches, problems of contemporary epistemology due to focus on the issue of skepticism and neglecting understanding and, finally, reasons related to philosophy of mind which deals with the relationship between belief and emotion. She continues her discussion with the relationship between belief and morality and considers a general meaning for libertarianism to pose the possibility of moral evaluation of all levels of knowledge. The main critique of this writing is on expanding liberty to all varieties of knowledge.

In the sphere of anthropology, there are two major approaches: philosophical anthropology and empirical anthropology. This study seeks to compare the views of two contemporary anthropologists representing those approaches regarding human essentials and investigate the consequences of their basic common points and differences in humanities. Therefore, we consider the views presented by Ayatollah Muhammad Taqi Mesbah on the basis of Islamic sources and transcendental philosophy, and among the humanist psychologists, Abraham Harold Maslow’s views on the basis of romantic philosophy, existentialist philosophy and empiricism. This study, in the concluding section, considers the limited and formal common points and many deeply-rooted differences between those two thinkers regarding those fundamental issues. This is in a way that the aforementioned differences have caused think differently regarding the description of human phenomena, explanation of human relations, determining the research issues and subject matters, and choosing the tools and sources of recognition; they even have contradicting judgments on determining behavioral norms as well as in valuing, policy-making, and recommending human behaviors and issues.

Initially, Charles Darwin put forward the ‘evolution theory’ as a biological theory in the scientific world. This sort of viewing the universe was not void of metaphysical results and had a great impact on humanities. Indeed, its effect on humanities was even more than its effect on biology. This study presents a report of evolution theory, its effect on anthropological foundations of humanities in five spheres, human’s truth, human’s status in the existence system, human’s will and liberty, human’s ultimate perfection and human’s creation to investigate them and show that the anthropological foundations of humanities emerged from the evolutionary view of the universe is not consistent with the anthropological foundations of Islamic humanities we support.

Human education’ enjoys a series of anthropological foundations that show the link between education and the discussions on philosophical psychology, and have always been considered by the thinkers in the sphere of education in the one hand, and the researchers in the sphere of anthropology on the other hand. Here, the views presented by Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), the famous and influential philosopher of the twentieth century in the sphere of the western philosophy, and Mulla Sadra (d. 1045 AH), the founder of transcendental philosophy in the sphere of Islamic philosophy, enjoy a special status. In the present study, it is clarified that, on the one hand, the starting point of anthropological discussions in both of those philosophers’ thoughts is the series of ontological discussions; and on the other hand, both thinkers have an existential attitude towards critique of the famous definition of the man as the ‘thinking animal’. The thoughts of those philosophers, while having common points, have differences which are dealt with in the present study.

Secularism is a kind of exclusivism in the sphere of knowing the existence. It brought a new definition for the subject matter, the method and the goal of any scientific sphere wherein it entered. It defines the foundations and presuppositions of sciences according to its own worldview. This article seeks to prove that if the definition of the man and his values has approached the definition and the nature of the material and mechanical world in the recent centuries, it is just because of the effect of natural sciences on humanities and redefinition of the basic parameters of those sciences (such as viewing the man, the universe and God) following the definition of those parameters in natural sciences. Accordingly, we will discuss reductionism, mechanical view, quantitative view, observability, naturalism, atomism, rejecting the ultimate causes and non-totalist view of the universe as the secularist bases of science. And finally, we will criticize the one-dimensional attitude governing those sciences. The discussion method is analytical and the result of the study emphasizes the necessity of revising many of the foundations of the modern natural sciences.

The main goal of this study is an analysis and critique of post-phenomenology in technological case studies. It seeks to answer two basic questions: first, ‘what analysis of post-phenomenology can be offered in technological case studies?’ and second, ‘what objections to post-phenomenology are posed in technological case studies?’ To this end, we used methods of conceptual analysis and evaluation of conceptual structure. The findings of the study regarding the first question show that post-phenomenology has originated from superiority of practice over theory in history of philosophy, and this has led to theoretical reflections on technology. This approach began with Don Ihde’s works in philosophy and is being developed with case studies on new technologies in works of Ferbike, Rosenberger and other expositors. The most important concepts developed in this philosophical tradition include relational ontology, mediatory concern, human-technology relations, technological concern, mediated awareness ground, alteration method, multiplicity, relations strategy, and alteration in transparency. The findings of the study in regard to the second question show that the most important critiques on this view are weakness of the theory of post-phenomenological morality in explaining some issues, inability in recognizing dominant stability in the multiplicity idea, being limited to specific relations and technological materialism, and no attention to human’s liberty in choosing technological mediation.