فصلنامه معرفت فلسفی
سال هجدهم شماره 3 (پیاپی 71، بهار 1400)

How the philosophical concepts are realized in illumination philosophy is affected by the way they are realized in peripatetic philosophy. In peripatetic philosophy, the dominant view on the way those concepts are realized is the external superabundance of these concepts to the identity of the object of accident. Thus, Suhravardi maintains that superabundance of the philosophical concepts to the identity of the object of accident leads to origination of vicious circle and other rational drawbacks; thus, he negates the external realization of those concepts, and explicitly incorporates them into the logical concepts. After Suhravardi, nearly all of the philosophers before Mulla Sadra were influenced by his view, but most of them, unlike Suhravardi, maintained that although it is impossible for the philosophical concepts to be found in the external world, those concepts, unlike the logical ones, have their origin or the origin of their attributes in the external world.

Ontology, especially the theory of ontology of language and meaning, in Mulla Sadra’s view affects his logic of analogical interpretation, and is, in some cases, modifying it. In Mulla Sadra’s view, everything, even the language and the letters, have higher celestial realities; and the language in its sublime reality is an objective and a mode of existence. This relationship is such that ontology and epistemology are joined and the universe is, from a viewpoint, considered the same as words. Mulla Sadra, on the one hand, has an existential view of language, and regards the universe analogous to words and language. By interpreting and explaining the meanings of the universe, the man expands it and discovers the analogical meanings. In Mulla Sadra’s philosophy, the meaning is a common thing and capable of being universal, and at the same time, has various layers all of which reach a transcendental truth. Understanding the meaning has various orders, and the deepest order of understanding is the intuitive understanding. In meaning and understanding, the lower orders are hints and prologues for higher orders – the very analogical interpretation. In this article, the semantic principles of analogical interpretation in Mulla Sadra’s philosophy have been extracted using a descriptive-analytical method, and the goal is to show the logic of Mulla Sadra’s analogical interpretations from the linguistic aspect.

Professor Toshihiko Izutsu, the philosopher, linguist, orientalist and Quran researcher, has left some comparative works. He was among the few thinkers that, in addition to comparing philosophies, would pay attention to the philosophy of comparison and methodological discussions in comparative studies, and well and with a deep insight, noticed the fact that the most important and the most principal cause of failure in comparative attempts of the recent era is the methodological poverty in doing such studies. In this article, we are going, in addition to describing the comparative method offered by Izutsu, to state its possible deficiencies and strong points. Using the meta-historical method, Izutsu has attempted to overcome this problem. There are two other problems in comparative method that must be resolved before the aforementioned problem: the problem of language and the problem of plurality of eastern philosophies. The former is resolvable through meta-dialogue or existential sympathy, and the latter through accessing meta-philosophy of the eastern philosophies. In the process of comparing the eastern philosophies with the western ones, Izutsu has used the semantic method in some cases to discover the key and focal concepts in eastern philosophies and achieve a meta-philosophy of the eastern philosophies. The relationship of the meta-historical method with the semantic method in a time based on history is among the subjects that must be dealt with.

In the Islamic philosophy and western philosophy, there are various explanations of the consistency between causal necessity and free will. The soul’s agency by manifestation for hierarchal willpowers, presented by Mulla Sadra as an explanation for this consistency, has considerable similarity to the view presented by Harry Frankfurt and Gary Watson (as another type of hierarchal approaches). These similarities are as follows: the role of hierarchal willpowers in strengthening human’s identity, the role of higher order willpowers in controlling the willpowers of the lower order and human’s actions, the hierarchal desires leading to a deep self as the main controller of those desires and willpowers, and no interference of the alternative possibilities (the possibility of available options) in the reality of free will. The important difference between Mulla Sadra’s approach and the two other approaches is that in Frankfurt and Watson’s approach, human’s deep self (as the ultimate origin of willpower) is not truly an essential thing; and this causes their hierarchal approach not to offer an acceptable answer for the drawback of vicious circle of willpowers; but in Mulla Sadra’s approach, this deep self is truly an essential thing that causes the hierarchal willpowers not to continue infinitely. Therefore, while Mulla Sadra’s approach enjoys the merits of Frankfurt and Watson’s approach in explaining the optional nature of willpower and controlling the desires, it lacks their drawback and is a more proper approach for consistency.

The nature of “Sirat” (the Path or Bridge which every human must pass on the "Day of Judgment" to enter the Paradise) and its features are among the important issues in theology and religious teachings. Any explanation and interpretation of it is influential in theological discussions and the network of religious teachings. In this study, “the meaning and truth of Sirat” in three spheres of genesis, legislation and punishment in Allamah Tabatabai’s view is investigated. The results show that Allamah deals with the four systems (cause and effect, motion, authority and servitude, and divinity) in his intellectual system and his worldview, and has offered in each system a definition according to that system for Sirat. In the sphere of genesis, Sirat has been explained with a consideration of the two systems of “cause and effect” and “motion” (if it is involuntary); and in the sphere of legislation, it is defined with a consideration of the three systems of “motion” (in voluntary motion), “authority and servitude”, and “divinity”. In the sphere of punishment, a definition related to the definition of legislative Sirat is presented.

The corporeal resurrection is one of the main issues influencing the realm of religion, an issue that has dominated a large part of religious sources. Many of the Islamic thinkers have sought to analyze and investigate this subject and some have put forward a certain view about it. Regarding the nature of the corporeal resurrection, there are some disagreements, but according to the right belief and according to the Quranic verses and traditions, the corporeal resurrection is realized in the Doomsday with an elemental body, not an imaginary one. On the theory of corporeal resurrection with the elemental body, however, various doubts and objections have been offered by some thinkers. In this article, seven doubts among the important doubts on the corporeal resurrection with elemental body are investigated, and it is shown that none of them can blemish the verses and traditions asserting the elemental mode of the corporeal resurrection. These doubts are as follows: lack of matter in Doomsday, no time in Doomsday, no place in Doomsday, no corruption in Doomsday, origination of beings in the hereafter, repetition of this world and unity of the divine action.

Cognitive-therapy uses a series of techniques to solve many psychological difficulties and a vast area of psychological disorders. However, the cognitive-therapy is not restricted to a series of techniques; rather, it is a theory based on the philosophical foundations consistent with the scientific methods. The pioneers and researchers of cognitive-therapy have not explicitly spoken of all the intellectual foundations of cognitive-therapy; however, a survey of the discussions of the cognitive-therapists reveals the theological foundations. Accordingly, the present study aims at investigating the theological foundations in cognitive-therapy and reviewing these foundations according to the Islamic thought with an emphasis on Ayatollah Mesbah’s views. The present study is of documentary-analytical type. The findings of the study suggest that non-demonstrability of religion, irrationality of theism, relativity of religious propositions, considering religion and piety as the cause for mental disorders, paying attention to spirituality without God, and religious plurality are among theological foundations that pioneers of cognitive-therapy have dealt with. Cognitive-therapy based on such a theology, by answering these questions and mental challenges, shows a treatment inconsistent with Islamic approach in its intellectual and doctrinal framework. Thus, the foundations of such a treatment are inconsistent with Islamic foundations which are the result of a divine paradigm, and do not lead the man to the truth of his own existence.

Bradley mentions a vicious circle according to which any theory that considers external things as units composed of plural components are deficient. Since most tropists maintain that the minute things are composed of coexisting trops, Bradley’s vicious circle covers tropism as well. Mavrin holds that Bradley’s view on how the relationship exists is wrong, and that the relationship is something with an existential dependence on its surroundings; and she has, thus, resolved Bradley’s vicious circle. However, based on a reading of Allama Tabatabai’s analysis in the discussion on existence of a connection, one may criticize Mavrin and consider a mutual dependence between the relationship and its surroundings. Besides, although Mavrin’s view resolves Bradley’s vicious circle, it seems to be inconsistent with tropism theory. In this article, after a brief look at tropism, we mention Bradley’s vicious circle and explain it for the theory of tropism. Then, we mention Mavrin’s solution and review it to defend the view of internal and mutual dependence between the relationship and its surroundings.