نشریه جاویدان خرد
سال هشتم شماره 2 (پیاپی 19، تابستان 1390)

“Philosophy of religion” nowadays is one of most prevalent fields of “study of religion”. This assay puts “philosophy of religion” as its subject matter discussing its various aspects including background، definition، subject، questions and its nature. Despite of the old-age of philosophical reflections in religious issues، “philosophy of religion” in its exact meaning has begun by Hegel. The definition of “philosophy of religion” is difficult for three reason: a) the difficulty of defining its components (philosophy and religion)، b) multiplicity of its topics and c) diverse concept of the relationship of philosophy with religion. Yet it has been defined in two ways: 1) Philosophical defense of religion، and2) Philosophical reflection about religious topics. During this assay، it will be clarified that “philosophy of religion” is a first-order discipline that philosophizes about religious concepts، ideas and deeds. But this philosophizing about religion is not the simple application of rational thinking in the religious issues; rather multiple western philosophical schools are the watering place of “philosophy of religion”. Indead، belonging to a specific philosophical school and possessing particular philosophical ideas، each philosopher begins to study aspects of religion and theorize about it. There are different sorts of questions discussed in philosophy of religion: some discuss about religion as a whole، others discuss common issues of theistic religions، and three investigate some particular doctrines of some religion. Finally، we can conclude that it is possible or even necessary to have an Islamic Philosophy of Religion. It would be philosophical scrutiny on religious issues especially Islamic ones، based on Islamic philosophy.

Investigation about status of concepts and circumstance of interaction of mind with objective world is regarded important in the realm of epistemological and ontological issues. The common approach on separation between the First and Secondary intelligible is that the First intelligible unlike logical and philosophical intelligible - applies to instances (masadiq) of the objective world. Author in his study، Considers criteria of «independent instance» - applied for distinction between the first and secondary intelligibles- inadequate. In this article، the role of theory of «the essentiality of Existence» is regarded important and effective.