نشریه خردنامه صدرا
پیاپی 79 (بهار 1394)

One of the most important discussions in Islamic philosophy, kalam, and gnosis is speaking of God. The “unity of being” and “unity of intuition” have been proposed as two approaches to the quality of the relationship between the wayfaring gnostic servant and God and speaking of Him. Each of these approaches has some representatives in the tradition of Islamic gnosis and each has specific beliefs regarding gnostic unity. In this paper, through explaining the theories of the unity of being (based on Ibn Arabi’s ideas) and the unity of intuition (based on ‘Ala al-Dawlah Semnani’s views), the writers initially discuss their differences concerning unity. Then they explore the concept of “personal God” as one of the necessities and basic principles of the theory of the unity of intuition as opposed to the Absolute God of the theory of the unity of being.

There is an accurate ontological relationship between theoretical and practical wisdom in the Transcendent Philosophy. Based on the principiality of existence and gradation of being, the trans-substantial motion, and the corporeal createdness and spiritual subsistence of the soul, Mulla Sadra explains this relationship and the soulish change which results from it. The mutual influence of the thoughts, acts, intentions, and behaviors of an individual on each other in the course of the trans-substantial motion of the soul form the inner and real form of human beings. At the beginning of their creation, all individuals are from the same species; however, in their innermost and in the Hereafter, because of the domination of various habits over their souls, they turn into angelic, beastly, savage, or devilish human beings. The embodiment of Man’s otherworldly form and Ideal body are also proportionate to their soulish and moral habits. It is because in the Hereafter bodies are the shadows of souls. This is the same inner transformation or moral incarnation which has been mentioned in religious texts. Moreover, the soul’s trans-substantial motion, whether in the angelic path or in the, beastly, savage, or devilish path, is of the types of dressing after dressing. This is because the origin of inner and otherworldly wickedness is also a kind of gradedness in actuality. Therefore, it can be concluded that, based on the principles of Sadrian philosophy, Man’s inner and otherworldly transformation, is not of the type of impossible essential transformation.

In his various works, Mulla Sadra has presented different views concerning certain philosophical issues which cannot be gathered in a single philosophical system. In this paper, with reference to such issues, the writers have examined the causes of these different views. For a more thorough study of the related cases, they have investigated different theories including the trans-substantial motion, the mediating movement, the cause of time, the nature of knowledge, God’s knowledge of particulars, divine activity, the cause-effect relation, the criterion for the dependence of possible beings on the Necessary Being, meanings of quiddity, the quality of attribution of existence to quiddity, unity of being, immateriality, and createdness of the soul. A study of these issues indicate that the existence of different views in Mulla Sadra’s works is rooted in one of the following factors: 1) a change in his philosophical theories and ideas over time (initially, he believed in the principiality of quiddity, then in the principiality of existence and gradedness of being, and finally in the individual unity of existence); 2) observing the instructional aspect in expressing his views, 3) posing his theories based on different principles (people, graded unity of being, and individual unity of existence); 4) trying to compose a pseudo-encyclopedic series of books on philosophical discussions.

The theory of Ideas is one of the important philosophical theories which has influenced the views of most philosophers in various periods, and many of them have confirmed or rejected it. The majority of Muslim philosophers have also had to investigate this theory and finally accept it in general. However, they have often interpreted it within the framework of their own philosophical system. Mulla Sadra believes that he has presented an interpretation of the theory of Ideas based on his own philosophical principles which is completely compatible with Plato’s intention. The question is, given the fact that the theory of Ideas is inconsistent with Mulla Sadra’s philosophical principles from many aspects, such as those related to his psychology, was his philosophical endeavor successful? The present research aims to provide an answer to this question through analyzing and exploring the psychological concomitants arising from this theory. Here, after a thorough investigation of the psychological dimensions and concomitants of this theory and explaining Mulla Sadra’s view and defense in this regard, the writers portray the inconsistencies between the psychological principles of the Transcendent Philosophy and the concomitants of the Platonic theory of Ideas while providing a general explanation of Sadrian psychology. Following this, they question Mulla Sadra’s strict defense of this theory. Finally, they conclude that Plato’s belief in the pre-eternity of the soul, his theory of reminiscence of knowledge, and the restriction of his psychology to rational immateriality and its separation from corporeal body, versus Mulla Sadra’s theory of the corporeal origination of the soul and his belief in the acquisition of knowledge and the copulative existence of the soul are among the most important differences between the philosophical schools of these two philosophers. As a result, any attempt to reconcile their views with each other would be futile.

Unlike his preceding philosophers, Mulla Sadra believes that the distance between the rational soul and the corporeal body is too big to be filled merely with the steam-like soul. In addition to the steam-like soul, he considers the existence of Ideal existence as a link between the rational and corporeal levels to be necessary. Mulla Sadra’s graded view of human existence led him, firstly, to introduce Man as having three supreme (rational), low (material), and mid (Ideal) levels. Secondly, he maintained that Man’s Ideal and imaginal level is the link connecting the two higher and lower levels. In order to explain the place of Ideal level in human existence, he resorts to the principle of the “conformity between the macrocosm and microcosm” and considers the two rational and Ideal levels in the human microcosm to be similar to the Heaven and Throne in the macrocosm. As acknowledged by Mulla Sadra himself, he is greatly influenced by gnostics regarding the discussion of Man’s Ideal level.

The place of concepts and the quality of the interaction between the mind and the object are two of the important issues in the fields of epistemology and ontology. The problems of primary and secondary intelligibles and their distinction from each other also enjoy equal significance. The common view regarding the difference between primary and secondary intelligibles is that, unlike the logical and philosophical secondary intelligibles, primary intelligibles have some external referents. In this paper, the writer maintains that this criterion is not enough for distinguishing them from each other. To justify his position, he argues that the theory of the principiality of existence plays an influential role in clarifying the distinction between these two types of intelligibles.