فصلنامه پژوهش های فلسفی - کلامی
سال پنجم شماره 1 (پیاپی 18، پاییز و زمستان 1382)

Epistemology has, for the 20th century, been one of the controversial and important issues of philosophy. A turning point originated by Kant in the history of philosophy, went to assume a tranquil movement under such epistemological views as traditional fundamentalism and epistemological Internalism when Edmond Gettier's three page essay "Is knowledge the true justified belief?" came to stir this tranquility. It can definitely be said that this short essay was regarded by all those who came afterwards. In this essay, Gettier has challenged the epistemologist's threefold definition of knowledge through a few examples. It became one of the functions of epistemology, after Gettier, to answer his objections. From among its a few motives, it can be said that, the proper function theory on warrant (the third element of knowledge) has been proposed to respond Gettier's objections. This theory belongs to Alvin Plantinga, the great and famous philosopher of religion in 20th century. In this article, we have tried to give a short account of this theory so that those interested can have some sound understanding of it.

From among the philosophical rules on causality bearing closely upon the resemblance principle of cause and its effect is "al-wahed" rule" (the rule that every one and the same cause may have only one and the same effect, and vice versa). This rule has been regarded as a self-evident principle by many metaphysicians, but thought of as raising serious questions particularly on its domain by others. Out of such questions is its fierce opposition to divine absolute activity and omnipotence, so that many considered divine causation as an exception to the rule. Having explained the rule and its domain, this article is going to deal with the limitation of omnipotence. it ends in the conclusion that neither exception to the rational al-wahed rule nor the limitation of omnipotence are true; there is no opposition between what is implied by this rule and the proofs of omnipotence.

Explaining the short history of Humanism, the author discusses different application of the word ©humanism¨. In continue we discuss the main characters of the secular humanism in details. Scientific method, moral relativity, the evolution and religion according to secular humanism are discussed here. Then the different responses of Christianity to the secular humanism are discussed. Reviewing the totally negative response of the Traditional Christianity to humanism, we have considered the two main relatively positive responses to it in the Christianity. A-Accepting Humanistic claims, but interpreting them in coherence with the spirit of the religion. This reaction can be called Christian Humanism. B-The response of those Christians who take the religious claims as their priority and accept humanism to the extent that correspond to religion strictly. This can be called the humanism of Christians.

Having mentioned the characteristics of the over six period developments of Science, this article goes to analyze the causes of these developments. Intellectuals have regarded the religious context of Abraham originating religions as a factor that played the most effective role in such developments. This article is about to consider the evidences of this effective role

This article is a critical review of the newly published Encyclopedia of Quran.The author has selected some of it's articles and discussed them in details.

This article is going first to offer different definitions of "Companion", and then to deal with related issues such as, the development of the geographical word of Islam duringCaliph's period, that both the holy prophet (PBUH) and Quran admired some companions, and the prevalence of some theologically special sects, such as Murjiites, which paved the way for the justice theory of companions.Having recourse to the words of companions about one another, in particular Imam Ali's on some companions, the author has finally criticized the justice theory of companions.

To embrace outer realities and the possibility of knowledge which passes through absolute skepticism are the much needed prerequisites of any effective dialogues, particularly on religious doctrines. All this would be impossible unless we embrace the self-evident principles of cognition. It thus takes logical precedence to deal with such principles over other issues.Such a conclusion requires much attention to some primary divisions made in logic and human cognition such as, those of conceptual and intuitive knowledge, divisions of conceptual knowledge into self-evident and speculative (demonstrative), the vindication of the necessity of self-evident principles and their divisions on the basis of which is established the whole human knowledge in all disciplines of science.It is to be reminded that there can be found some factors affecting the increase or decrease of those primary understandings. Religion and the reveled books particularly Quran has played a decisive role in emphasizing and strengthening those self-evident principles. The article then ends in some examples as the evidence.

Having explained the importance of comparative philosophy-being here including the comparative analysis of mystical systems-, the author believes that the accurate method is to infer the general spirit of systems and epistemological frameworks and then to compare them (meta philosophy). He, as an example, deals with one of the major casesi.e. the theory of "Unity of Being" and gives his precisely semantic analysis of it according to the Islamic metaphysic and mysticism; he then proposes some related ideas of Vedanta, and Zen.Having described "Being" as the exceptional predicate which constitutes the identity of the subject, he deals with the relation between being and essence-finite and infinite- unity and plurality, and the two views of permanence and annihilation in order to explain the mystical Unity of Being.

Happiness is one of the fundamental issues of the philosophy of ethics. It is the absolute end, and the ultimate target sought for in all rational activities and ethical virtues. Self-knowledge is the true key of happiness; only through some mutual influence of the mind and body, one may obtain one's true happiness and to realize the whole dimensions of one's mentally and bodily perfection. The happy man is he who enjoys the strongest pleasures, including natural, intellectual, actual, and permanent. Due to his both ethical and cognitive dimensions, man can never achieve his happiness except through knowledge, education, wisdom, and ethical purification. Since we can only make an effective use of practical reason in society, happiness is impossible in isolation.