مجله نامه مفید
پیاپی 39 (آذر و دی 1382)

In the theoretical philosophy of Kant, which includes such notions as sensations, transcendent dialectic and the like, the discussion on Transcendental Analytic plays the most important role in close relationship with the categories. Categories like quality, quantity, relation and modality are of great significance in his philosophy. Among these categories or concepts, possibility, as a concept under modality, is very important in transcendental theology and dialectic.The way Kant introduces this concept, its distinction from other concepts and his view of possibility in the dialectic are among the issues in this article with which the winter is concorned.

History is central to Hegel's conception of philosophy. According to Hegel, there are three kinds of history: original, reflective and philosophical history or history of philosophy which is preferred by him to the formers. Reason is the sovereign ruler of the world, conseqently the history of the world presents us with a rational and necessary process and not a contingent one. The subject matter of philosophical history is the Spirit. Spirit is a self - conscious and free substance and in it historical course becomes aware of it's own freedom. Every nation has a Spirit which is an event in realization of World - Spirit. World -Spirit is developed by passions of world-historical individuals. They realize a new epoch and more advanced stage of freedom and self- consciousness. Hegel divides world history into the oriental, classical, and Germanic worlds.

Among the important philosophical issues in relation to the “Causal Principle” which, to some extent, partakes of theology, in addition to its being of strong philosophical aspect, is the “yardstick of need for cause”. In this relation, four major views have been put forward which can be referred to as 1- the view of existence, 2- the view of contingence, 3- the view of essential possibility and 4- the view of existential possibility.Having studied the self–evident quality of the principle of contingent beings’ need for cause, the writer attempts to make some critical remarks on these views, explaining the philosophical foundations of a fifth view called’ the view of essential contingency’ as an alternative for the above-mentioned views. To do this, the writer explains in detail the widely accepted definitions and interpretations given for the essential contingency by the Muslim philosophers, giving some reasons for the preference of this new view over the older ones.

We comprehend things in the comprehensive kinds and we use universals in our language. However, the manner of their existence is unrevealed. Realism believes that they are objective; conceptualism counts them subjective and nominalism reduces universals to mere commone words. Hegel’s theory of universals is novel. He offers a new definition to universal and calls this notion»concrete universal«. In his view it is a mistake to imagine that the objects which form the content of our mental ideas come first and that our subjective agency then by the operation of abstraction supervenes. Rather, the notion is the genuine first; and things are what they are through the action of the notion, immanent in them and revealing itself in them. This articl discusses about Hegel’s definition of universals, his process of approach to universal, the relation between universal and its individuals and existence of universal in Hegel’s view.

Modern theological concepts, having their roots in the West, appeared in Persian literature when Mirza Taqi Farahani, entitiled Amir Kabir (the Great Prince) and Mirza Sepahsalar came to power, and the way was paved for the intellectuals to express their own ideas openly. Since then, these theological concepts have become controversial issues among the traditional theologians.In the realm of social sciences and politics, the first issues of major concern were ‘freedom’, ‘equality’, common law and democracy (the republican aspect of government) which were strongly supported by theologians since Constitutionalism. Certain issues like the relationship between science and religion, dialectic materialism and Marxism were added to the theological issues after Constitutionalism. The pathological study of the theologians’ position shows that most traditional theologians were not well-acquinted with the new theological issues which found their way into the traditional theological subjects and one could hardly find among them a theologian who had authority in the new theological issues put forward by the western thinkers. They attempted to deal with these new theological issues through the traditional modes of thinking and did not pay attention to the positive functions of the issues in question and even in some cases they took a contradictory position towards them.

This essay deals with the idea of happiness in the philosophy of Farabi. The author, following Farabi, considers the formal characters of happiness and concludes that happiness must be the highest good and self sufficient. Different forms of virtue are constitutive of the happiness, so he explains the content of happiness by explaining theoretical, deliberative, practical and technical virtues. The writer has shown that Farabi's conception of happiness is an inclusive end and it is misunderstanding to interpret his view as an intellectual dominant end. Finally, The writer briefly refers to some of the defects in his theory of happiness.

Nietzche (1844-1900) gives a definition for tragedy which is in no way similar to its popular sense in history, especially in the sense used in modern literature. In fact, Nietzsche considers tragedy as an ontological view of human existence. His interpretation of tragedy rests upon the Schopenhauer’s philosophy as well as aesthetic ideals of Richard Vagner. At that time, this young philosopher was deeply influenced by his master’s aspirations (ideals) in philosophy and music. Nietzche holds that the primary human concern has been that of death and mortality. Man, among other creatures, is the only living being who is aware of the fact of his death which, in turn, makes him or her turn to art. His creativity in escaping from death manifests itself in art, and tragedy is the culmination of man’s creativity in art. This great literary form, in its primitive course of development, mainifests itself in the chorus. The chorus, together with their ecstatic joyful songs, know as dithyramb, are creatures called satyrs, who appear half-man, half-goat (goat-like), accompanying Dionysus, the god of wine, ecstasy and drunkedness in his pleasures and delights. Satyrs and Dionysus are manifestations of transient unity of existence. In this unitary and fundamental state, man stands in a live relation with the universe, the other human beings and their origins. The culmination of tragic art lies in this very live relation in which man is at once the Subject and the Object. It is only in this transcendent art that man finds some meaning for his life and justifies his mortality as originated in the reality of horrendous transient earthly existence to overcome his fear of mortality. Acconrding to Nietzcche, tragedy comes to an end with the appearance of the first seeds of rationalism symbolized in Socratism.Nietzsche’s definition of tragedy, compared to the definition given for it by the philosophers of the Enlightenment, along with the death of tragedy after the birth of rationalism, to which he referred as Socratism, constitute the theme of the present article.

Bertrand Russel holds that, in dissussing self-evidence, one should speak of self-evident beliefs rather than of self-evident propositions, for self-evidence, in his view, can be defined only in reference to a certain subject or certain psychological states of mind. knowledge is said to be self-evident when it is achieved through senses and this sort of Knowledge is not self-evident unless it is perceived. Thus, it is not the nature of a proposition is one and the same before and after it is pecevied. Therefore, the real self-evidence is and attribute or a property which is related to a certain subject at a certain time.

Considering Ibn ‘Arabi as an active Muslim scholar, theosopher and, to some extent, philosopher, both and influential, who wrote voluminously at an exceedingly high level of discourse, making him one of the most difficult of all Muslim authors, the writer has made an attempt to find his relation with philosophy in three aspects, and judge whether he deserves the name faylasuf or not: 1) Aquaintance with falsafah: Though it is clear that he was conversant with the fundamental sources of the Islamic Tadition and the intellectual currents of his day, especially the wisdom tradition, most of what he says is the product of his unveiling (Kashf)2) View of falsafah: According to him, the unveiling achieved by sufi practitioners is a mode of knowing superior to reason, but reason is necessary for acquiring a true knowledge, therefore, tashbih (God’s incomparability) and rahmah (God’s Mercy) take precendence over his tanzih (His similarity) and Ghadab (Wrath).3) Contributions to philosophy: His contributions to philosophy can be summarized in three intimately interwined theories as follows: The Oneness of Being (wahdat al-wujud), the world of Imagination (alam al-khayal), and the perfect human being. The first theory is basend on the theory of tashbih; the second, in its broader sense, applies to the cosmos itself and to every thing within it, and lies between the two grand worlds, the visible (al-shahadah) and the Invisible (al-ghayb), to use the Quranic terms. And the third, the perfect human being, having actualized every possibility of knowledge and existence, fulfils the purpose of creation.