ماهنامه معرفت
سال بیست و دوم شماره 5 (پیاپی 188، امرداد 1392)

Religious teachings provide many recommendations to use "means" when we seeking access to God. The most important means is nearness to the Glorified God, to God's friends and to prophets the greatest of whom is the Holy Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him and his progeny) stands the highest. God forgives mistaken who seek mediation with God's prophets and friends and turn to them for intercession. Since man is essentially a completely poor creature and the all material and spiritual blessings he has are God-given, he is always in need of God. Therefore, he always needs to seek mediation with God's friends to overcome the problems of life. The present paper sheds light on this issue in detail.

Muslim thinkers who have investigated anthropology believe that people have a reality and they use such terms as "I" and "self" when they refer to it. Although "I" and "self" are very valuable thing for them, they are often ignored and this causes people to be alienated. The present paper tries to expound the "possibility of alienation" in the light of the Quranic verses and Muslim thinker's view. It concludes that man's reality is represented in his soul which has different stages. The development and transcendence of this reality is contingent upon one's relationship with God and knowledge of its high stage. Therefoe, if man forgets God or its high stage and cuts himself from them, he will be alienated. Since most people do not even think of God and the high stage of soul, not only "the possibility of alienation" but also its recognition are proven.

The relationship between science and religion is among the most important issues, which has been the special concern of Muslim and western thinkers. As a result of the increasing development of the natural sciences many questions are raised about the relationship of these sciences with religion. An acquaintance with this issue can play a very influential role in examining the relationship between science and religion. Using descriptive-analytical method and taking into account the challenging contexts of the issue of science and religion in the western world and its historical trend until this century, the present paper concludes that although this issue first developed in the West for different reasons, Muslims have dealt with it from a different perspective and under the title of "the relationship between intellect and religion", and the issue of the relationship between science and religion as discussed in Christian world has been dealt with by Muslim thinkers, not as an issue in itself but as an imported one. In addition, this issue is discussed in the Muslim world mostly in terms of the relationship between the human sciences and religion.

It is important to delve into and criticize David Hume's view on "the value of cognition", which assess reliability to epistemic claims. Referring to the works and research projects done on the views of Hume who is thought by modern empiricists to be the founder of modern empiricism, the present paper comes to the conclusion that, taking into consideration the three principles of skepticism, meaningfulness in conceptions and causality, Hume is a fundamentalist philosopher in terms of "the value of cognition" and he believes in the theory of compatibility but not in the sense of compatibility between thought and reality, but compatibility "between thought and phenomenological impression"; that is, any cognition which reaches phenomenological impression is truly dealt with according to the criteria of "sensational impressions" and "memory". Hume has a problem with the affirmation of propositions, which, according to him, are related to actual relation in the future. These propositions are based on causality. This Hume's epistemic approach to epistemology (except the relationship between conceptions) leads to epistemological idealism which is one of the theoretical foundations of the relativity of religious knowledge. Using an analytical-descriptive method, the present paper criticizes Hume's view about "the value of cognition" in the light of transcendent philosophy.

Epistemologists usually assign three meanings to knowledge. Familiarity, skill and propositional (predicate) knowledge constitute three meanings of knowledge. Most epistemologists, however, consider propositional knowledge as the subject of philosophy. Using a library and qualitative method, the present paper tries to shed light on each meaning of knowledge, study propositional knowledge in particular and investigate the three conditions of this definition and the views proposed about them, on the basis of the traditional definition of knowledge of justified true belief. The research findings indicate that some epistemologists consider these three conditions as problematic and that although there has been a relative consensus on the definition of knowledge in terms of these three conditions, it has been challenged and these three conditions has been regarded as imperfect since Gettier's time.

One of the questions discussed in the philosophy of mind is how to ontologically explain the states of mind. New theories have been proposed in the philosophy of West to explain this issue, the most important of which are: behaviorism, the identity of mind and body, functionalism and eliminativism. In the meantime, John Searle and Davidson believe in non-alternative Monism and consider mind as one of the non-physical features of soul. Using intellectual method, the present paper tries to explain and criticize the theory of non-alternative monism by. It concludes that the subjective attributes of soul cannot be considered material because the proofs provided by the proponents of aforementioned theory are incomplete and do not prove their claims. Therefore, reducing abstract realities into material things is not rational.

"Essence" and "existence" are among the fundamental and key concepts in the realm of philosophy, and one who has little familiarity with philosophical texts knows these two concepts. No doubt, explaining these concepts which are among the most basic philosophical concepts helps explain many philosophical questions the knowledge of which is based on this explanation. Using a library and documentary method, the present paper takes a probing look at some main issues related to the nature of essence. Explaining these issues will much help explain the issue of existence and its fundamentality, which has long been discussed and debated among philosophers. The most important findings of this paper are: realizing the essential and primary predication and common technical predication, recognizing the difference between negative attribute and negative real, realizing the aspects of essence to explain and reanalyze the famous forms of negation of two contradictories at the level of entity of essence.

Explaining the nature of mediating movement and cutting movement and their external realization are regarded among the important issues in the philosophical discussions of the movement. Avicenna was the first to investigate explicitly. He believes that what exists outside is mediating movement, while cutting movement exists only in mind. Fakhr Razi, Mir Damad, Mulla Sadra and some of the philosophers who followed them criticized Avicenna's view whereas some others tried to justify it. Mulla Sadra believes that the cutting movement exists outside. Of course, his words about the external existence of mediating movement seem to be uncertain. Using a descriptive-analytical method and seeking to offer a precise answer of this question, the present paper supports the idea of negating the external existence of mediating movement and criticizes the view the proponents of its external existence.