نشریه دین و ارتباطات
سال سیزدهم شماره 1 (بهار 1385)

The Problem of universals with its triple directions i.e the semantics, epistemology, and ontology has a strong background in the history of philosophy. Plato and Aristotle in the ancient Greece, Aquinas and William of Ockam in the Middle Ages, empiricist and rationalist philosophers in modern times, and finally the contemporary philosophers, have all dealt with it in some way or another. Kant was the inheritor of empiricists and rationalists. In the matter of quiddity and empirical concepts, he was after developing and deepening the views of empiricists such as Lock and Hume, so that when it comes to the pure concepts of understanding, he was nearer to rationalists, stance than empiricist,s.It will become easier to understand Kant,s theory about empiricist concepts through explaining the cognitive faculties of the mind and doctrine of matter and form that can identify and classify the whole concepts. This is because Kant refers the universality of the concept to its form which is the outcome of the subject,s action an the process of abstraction and analysis. He then introduces the concept, as far as its form is concerned, as something which has function as a rule. He also brings depth to the discussion by mentioning concepts like the synthesis of imagination and schematism. He also distinguishes the empiricist concepts from the pure ones by ranking the rules and taking them as primary and secondary. Throughout the article there is a concentrated reflection of Kant,s theory in proportion to that of empiricists. The article ends with a short criticism of the theory.

Some historians deny the existence of any specific Moslem philosophy. This stance is naturally based on the following premises: The Islamic philosophy starts with the ideas of Al – Kandi (died in 259 L.H) and finishes with Ibn – Rushd (died in 595 L.H.). Moslems, in the wake of Translation Movement, produced the Arabic versions of the inherited Greek texts of philosophy. This was followed by the efforts done by Islamic authors like Al-Kandi to give a domestic version of those ideas, at times even combining them with the religious teachings to the extent that at the hands of Al-Farabi (died in 339 L.H.) and Ibn-Sina (died in 428 L.H.), the philosophy was rendered a religions tone. But then Al-Ghazzali (died in 505 L.H.) launched a devastating criticism of the Islamic philosophy. The impact was so high that philosophy started to wane in the Islamic world and couldn,t rise again even by the efforts done by such figures as Ibn.Rushd.This group of historians didn,t recognize any such thing as a philosophical school among Moslems. The stance persisted until recent decades, but due to the efforts of some orientalists such as Henri Corbin and others, the situation changed. Today there is a consensus that in the field of the Islamic thought one can discern, next to Ibn- Sina,s philosophy (which is of Peripatetic nature), a couple of other influential schools that have overshadowed the Greek philosophy. The founders of these two schools are Sohravardi, alias Sheikh Ishraq (died in 587 L.H) and Mulla Sadra (died in 1050 L.H.). The present article claims that some new schools of philosophy and novel ideas are perceptible after Mulla Sadra. One of these that could be Known as Neo-Sadraian philosophy was set by Allameh Tabatabaee. Figures like Moddares Zunuzi (died in 1307 L.H.), Imam Khomeini and Shahid Motahhari are three proponents of this school. The article also discusses Allameh Tabatabaee,s intellectual standing and manner of philosophizing.

The article deals with some of the most famous opinions concerning doubt about man,s knowledge of realities. Meanwhile it has been attempted to survey Moslem philosophers compared with western scholars to enable the reader to recognize their different stances. It is also demonstrated that the most important challenge of philosophy and skepticism is not with all those stances that have the attribute of skepticism (like ancient skepticism and new skepticism – modern and contemporary), because most of these are rather concerned with ethical and behavioral intents and purpose than denying a knowledge of reality. Also it has been shown that the utmost feature of Moslem philosophy is the ontological discussions and their great impact on arguments dealing with knowledge and its analysis. These bases have so much empowered the theory of feeling the truth in Islamic thought that one can take it as a definite prerequisite for starting any sort of philosophical and unphilosophical discussions. Among western views also, those responses given to skepticism or based on that, are more successful than other answers.

The method used in this article for propositional relations is first examining conversion through examples and by using Venn diagrams following an acquaintance with inferences provided by the square of opposition, then examining obversion by relying on the obvious principle of the impossibility of truth and falsity of contradictories. Obversion doesn,t require proof because its basis is the same principle of the impossibility of truth and falsity of contradictories. By having a proposition and subsequent use of conversion and obversion, other relations among propositions could be proved. The merits of this method are its simplicity of being communicated to others, the mention all of relations among propositions and faring away from involving in vicious circle. Therefore this method seems to be more efficient than the traditional one used by the late Mozaffar in his book "Al-Manteq" (logic) and taught as a common textbook in many universities and seminaries. That method is complicated, deficient and suffering from vicious circle.

The article first talks about the distinction between the theoretical and critical philosophy of history while considering the difference between the first and second degree knowledge. The salient aspects of the backgrounds of the two philosophies are then discussed. Finally, some appraisal of the critical remarks concerning the two philosophies and those dealing with the theoretical philosophy of history and the pure philosophy are given. Philosophy of history is divided into two parts i.e theoretical and critical philosophy of history, depending on the two meanings inferred from "history". The first aims at finding the meaing and ultimate end of history and is included in the field of metaphysics. The second, which belongs to the field of epistemology, deals with issues like definition and understanding, objectivity and judgement value, causation and narration in history.

How could people in general know God? What perception of God should they have? What ways have been suggested by religion in this regard? How has the Koran described God? The present article tries to answer these questions from Ibn Rushd,s point of view. According to him the best way for common people to know God is through sensible things. Religion has also emphasized this. The two proofs of Providence and Invention derived from the Koran are the best for the knowledge of God and the Right Path. People,s perception of God should conform with what is given in the Book not the theologians, logical analysis. Due to the incompetence of human reasoning in comprehending God,s attributes, one should not compare God with humans when describing Him, instead it is advisable to make this acquaintance in the manner described by the Koran. People of demonstration and those firmly rooted in knowledge can of course make an interpretation of Divine words and can achieve a far deeper insight of religion compared to common people, granted that God,s revelation is open to interpretation, but these are not to be conveyed to common people.