نشریه علامه
پیاپی 30 (بهار و تابستان 1390)

Arthur Schopenhauer, the German idealist, is well-known for his atheism, pessimism, misogyny and fluent style. Additionally, the notion of the genius is significant in his thought. It is important to discuss the notion within Schopenhauer's whole system, because it can not be well grasped without fully understanding his system. The main purpose of this paper is to show briefly the genius ׳s position and its relation to art and artist in Schopenhauer ׳s thought. Finally, it will be noticed that some of Schopenhauer ׳s ideas on the relationship between the genius and the artist are controversial.

No doubt, one of the basic principles of theistic religions and in fact the origin of the revealed scriptures is the revelation. Accordingly, with appearance of scientific and philosophical movements in modern world and formation of new cognitive branches, it has been much-discussed by various religious thinkers or theologians for all periods from various points of view. The main aim of this article is to research the views of one of the great Islamic thinkers namely ‘Allāmah Tabātābai on revelation and in fact tries to answer to the question: how the phenomenon of revelation according to ‘Allāmah is interpretable?Briefly, the answer of this article to the above-mentioned question is that firstly the attitude of the late ‘Allāmah to the revelation as an existential fact is based on a group of ontological, epistemological and anthropologic fundamentals which in fact rooted in his intellectual system. Secondly, to him, the existential truth of revelation for it is a very special threefold relation among God, Gabriel, and holy soul of the prophet, is wholly beyond our acquired knowledge.

Using his method of skeptical doubt, Descartes confidently asserts that reality can be divided into two distinct substances: (1) corporeal substance, which comprises all types of extended objects, e.g., the body, a desk, a leaf, etc.; 2) incorporeal or thinking substance; e.g. the mind, soul, or thinking thing. The objection raised by Descarte's contemporaries is how it is possible for two distinct substances such as mind and body, to interact; a problem to which our contemporary thinkers continue to struggle. Although Descartes always held that his original position on dualism was a coherent one, he proposed clarifications throughout his life meant in response to his contemporarie's objections regarding the mind-body problem. In replying the objections about interaction, Descartes also appealed to the union of the mind and body in human beings. The present paper begins with Descarte's early portrayal of mind and body which led to objections against the problem of interaction. It will then deals with Descarte's replies to these objections and with the final portrayal of his solution to the mind-body problem addressed in his book Passions of the Soul.

Love in all creatures, to philosophers, is an instinctive disposition due to their existence while for mystics it is a truth in them rooted in their life and awareness. In Sadrian philosophy, with regard to its principles such as Primacy, Unity, and simplicity of Being love is coextensive with the attributes of perfection. Mullā Sadrā maintains that Love, as a notion, is self-evident, and regards it as a universal truth which characterized by beauty, Goodness, knowledge, immateriality, power, and life. Accordingly, love penetrates into all creatures due to their enjoyment of the above-mentioned characteristics. To him, it is, like Being is, of true, effective, unitary and at the same time equivocal reality. Ultimately, he does not regard Being but as love and its manifestations. The divine Love to creatures and vice versa is real but has different meaning in each of them; that is to say the former is self-loving and true while the latter is mystically metaphorical.Keywords: Being, Love, Primacy of Being, graded Unity of Being, particular Unity of Being

The passive intellect is introduced in Aristotle's thought in contrast with other faculties of the soul. The intellect, a passive one, is regarded as a faculty of the soul unmixed with, and separated from, body which is not affected by anything other than itself. It is called material (Hayūlānī) intellect by Muslim philosophers.The author's position about its unity of plurality is determined by their view on its separation and unmixedness. John Philoponus, Averroes and Alexander, three important commentators of Aristotle's De Anima, and have their own view on this intellect. Alexander considers it embodied, material and as caused by body, while In Averroes, it is separate, imperishable and unmixed. John Philoponus adopts a middle standpoint with which the present paper deals.

Undoubtedly, Illuminationism and Taoism are two schools of thought that contain the important and impressive thoughts for different philosophers especially within Islamic and Chinese realms. Regarding to the fact the author tries, by glancing to these schools, to manage a comparative study between them through which their similarities and dissimilarities can be manifested. It is hoped that this comparative study can be regarded as an opening toward dialogue among civilizations, as a primary step for approximating the foundations of two old and great culture, Iran's and China's with which our readers are presented a new horizon.Keywords: Taoism, Tao te ching, the Wise, Illuminationism, Light, Perfect Man

The present paper is a study on the interwoven constituents of language, meaning, and science in thought of the pragmatist philosopher, John Dewey. In this article the social and common identity of language has been considered. For Dewey, All concepts are dialectically coming after each other and develop, so the theory of language after the discussion of meaning, and meaning after inquiry and inquiry after the uncertainty and instrumentalism and then the problematic situation.The theory of language is reached by the topic of meaning, and meaning by the concept of convention and social agreement, and theory of inquiry by the consensus among scientists. Thus we, in Dewey, are faced with a kind of relativism which are common among most empiricist philosophers.