نشریه خردنامه صدرا
پیاپی 62 (زمستان 1389)

Copulative existence has two applications, one in logic under the discussion of categorical proposition, and the other in relation to independent existence or existence-in-itself, which is called not-in-itself existence in philosophy. Some Muslim philosophers, particularly, the followers of the Transcendent Philosophy, have employed two methods in order to demonstrate the external realization of copulative existence: one is through analyzing categorical propositions, and the other is through analyzing the cause-effect relationship. The first method has been criticized because of its mixing logical principles with philosophical ones. However, the other method which is inspired by gnosis, views the existence of possible things in relation to the essence of the Truth the same as relation and dependence and demonstrates copulative existence based on this idea.

Mulla Sadra has a comprehensive view of being and the human both in speculation and action. He is neither like Farabi and Ibn Sina to believe that the knowledge of act is enough for its realization, nor like Suhrawardi to believe that the knowledge of act is enough for it to be realized. In his view, neither are the free will and act primary and essential, and the intellect and speculation secondary and subordinate – as the Ash‘arites maintained, nor are the intellect and speculation primary and essential, and the free will and act secondary and subordinate – as the Mu‘tazilites believed in. It is based on such an approach that Mulla Sadra discusses the relationship between speculation and action and propounds a number of different ideas in comparison to those of the philosophers before him when explaining “practical wisdom”, topics in the philosophy of ethics, philosophy of politics, and the attributes of the first leader of the state.The purpose of this paper is to clarify Mulla Sadra’s theory on the relationship between speculation and action and revealing its philosophical consequences in the field of practical wisdom as a theory in which rationality, spirituality, and a legal system based on Shari‘ah (religious laws) have a single and consistent interpretation. It also analyzes the various dimensions of Mulla Sadra’s theory in comparison to those of his predecessors and criticizes its applications to the new issues and problems in practice. It is a question why Mulla Sadra has not taken much heed of this area or has not discussed it in detail. One might also wonder why he has mainly dealt with individual ethics following a gnostic and Batini (esoteric) approach and has not considered a truth for practical affairs similar to that of theoretical ones. If we decide to revise Aristotle’s division of philosophy into theoretical and practical philosophies and present a view different from that of Farabi and Ibn Sina and even that of Mulla Sadra concerning the relationship between thought and the free will and, as a result, the relationship between speculation and practice, as ‘Allamah Tabataba’i has, we can grant a high place to practical wisdom or philosophy.

Verse 172 of Chapter al-‘Araf in the Qur’an, known as verse “al-Mithaq” or verse “Dharr”, has a mysterious content. Traditional interpreters have interpreted this verse based on the external meaning of the traditions on the world of pre-existence. Gnostics and mystics have also accepted this interpretation by adding some gnostic and metaphorical points. Ash‘arite theologians, because of their Zahirite (formalist) approach, have resorted to the surface meaning of the verse and believed in a world that is completely separate from and superior to this world called the world of pre-existence, which they believe is the Lordly abode. Nevertheless, the Mu‘tazilite and Imamiyyah theologians do not agree with this interpretation because of its disagreement with some rational principles. They believe that the abode of divine pledge is the present world and completely refuted the traditions on pledge in the world of pre-existence.However, by presenting a new interpretation, Mulla Sadra maintains that the descending of offspring from the human body means observing human beings in the truth of their intellectual fathers. He believes that the process of making a pledge is related to that period. He sees his own theory consistent with the traditions on the world of pre-existence.In general, there are two main approaches in the history of the interpretation of this verse. One of them states that it enjoys a narrative language, while the other maintains that it enjoys a symbolic one. However, both agree that we should have an epistemological interpretation of its language.

Priority and posteriority are two abstract concepts which originate in objective facts. They are sometimes among the accidents of existent qua existent, and an existent as such is qualified with them. Sometimes, two things share the same relation to an ontological source in terms of their existence with the difference that one might have a greater share than the other.The present paper examines the problem of priority and posteriority in potency and act. Initially, the writer presents the ideas of those who believe that pure potency is prior to act. Then he explains Mulla Sadra’s idea in this regard and finally examines the different kinds of the priority of actuality to potency.

Undoubtedly, “being” is one of the basic concepts in Plato’s philosophy. In this regard, three dialogs of the Republic, Parmenides, and Sophist are of prime importance. In the Republic he speaks of being in relation to the highest good; in Parmenides he speaks of it in relation to the “One”; and, finally, in Sophist he discusses existence in relation to sufism or, in a more exact sense, “non-being”.In the Republic, the highest good, which is called the most luminous part of being, grants both “being” and “essence”. In Parmenides, an existent which is the outcome of the participation of the “One” in being is the beginning of the infinite number of existents. In Sophist “being” is necessary for the definition of “non-being”, and, as a result, necessary for the definition of a sophist.This paper examines the different meanings of “being” in these three dialogs.

The internal transformation and the essential self-flourishing of human beings or, in Mulla Sadra’s words, “the substantial perfection of the human soul” is one of the most important discussions in philosophical anthropology and one of Mulla Sadra’s innovations in his Transcendent Philosophy. This problem opens the entangled knot of many philosophical, religious, and anthropological problems.Accordingly, it has been tried in this paper to examine and analyze the “substantial perfection of the human soul” from the beginning of its creation until attaining the end of ontological perfection. Therefore, the approaches and hypotheses of “the retaining of previous perfections”, “human’s spiritual promotion”, and “the actuality of the soul and horizontal change” as possible rival hypotheses and “the substantial perfection of the human soul” as the main research hypothesis have been analyzed and evaluated.On the basis of some theoretical principles such as the principiality of existence, gradedness of existence, the intensified trans-substantial motion, corporeality in origination and spirituality in subsistence, the immateriality of the soul and its unity with perceptive faculties and forms, the writer has tried to demonstrate the substantial perfection of the human soul.The human soul is a substance corporeal in its origination and spiritual in its subsistence. Moreover, in the light of its intensified trans-substantial motion, it continually attains its ontological perfections. In this process of essential perfection, through developing some faculties, perceptions, and habits, the soul gradually develops its substantial face and, in line with the gradedness of existence, acquires more faculties, stronger perfections, and more stable habits. Moreover, the soul unites with all of its faculties, some of which, at the same time with the soul, become immaterial. All the faculties of the soul are considered among its different modes and grades.

The general purpose of this paper is to explore the outcomes and consequences of the theory of the principiality of existence. However, in practice, by explaining the role of this theory in solving one of the basic problems of Islamic theology (kalam), it rejects the idea that the opposition between the principiality of existence and the principiality of quiddity is verbal in nature. This paper examines the effect of the theory of the principiality of quiddity on the basis of some contradictory theories in the domain of the semantics of the Divine Attributes and the role of the principiality of existence in removing the related contradictions. In doing so, after determining the source of contradiction, the writer studies the origin of the theory of the principiality of existence and its principles in the history of Islamic philosophy and concludes that the dead-ends resulting from advocating the principiality of quiddity when dealing with philosophical and theological (kalami) problems led Mulla Sadra to scrutinize more deeply and try to find a convincing solution. Finally, he developed the theory of the principiality of existence as a basis for a philosophical school. At the end, the writer has analyzed the semantics of the Divine Attributes on the basis of the two theories of the principiality of existence and the principiality of quiddity and explained the quality of removing the contradictions from the views of Muslim thinkers on the basis of the principiality of existence.

This paper deals with Mulla Sadra’s views in gnosis and, as a result, his place among philosophers, theologians, and gnostics. It argues that Mulla Sadra’s philosophy is neither a pure discoursive one, nor the same kalam or theology of his predecessors, nor gnosis in its traditional sense. Thus he is neither a pure discoursive philosopher, nor a gnostic heedless of philosophical problems, nor a theologian not to go beyond narration and argumentation. Rather, for him perfect knowledge originates in all principial sources of learning and wisdom, i.e. the intellect, revelation, and gnostic intuition. An intellect that is not rooted in revelation and gnostic intuition will go nowhere, and an intuition which is remote from revelation and rational deliberation cannot be immune against doubts. Moreover, pure reliance on traditions is not anything beyond imitative knowledge. The product of combining all these sources of knowledge is the Transcendent Philosophy, which contains a transcendent philosophy, a transcendent theology, and a transcendent gnosis. Mulla Sadra tries to grant an intuitive nature to philosophical findings and a demonstrative nature to gnostic intuitions, and then base both on revealed evidence. In this way, he presents arguments for the principiality and oneness of being and unites philosophy and gnosis with each other concerning their most essential common problems. The end of this philosophy is attaining happiness, and ultimate happiness and perfection are rooted in attaining the knowledge of God, which cannot be acquired except in the light of intellection, purification of the soul, and following the religious law (Shari‘ah). Accordingly, while rejecting useless theological and philosophical arguments and discussions, Mulla Sadra criticizes the pseudo-gnostics who suffer from some defects in their epistemological or behavioral dimensions or in both of them. In this way, he is both a critic and a reviver of kalam, philosophy, and gnosis. In fact, his criticism of these fields is the beginning of his revival of them.