Quarterly of the History of Philosophy
Volume 11
Roots of the Theoretical Foundations of Mulla Sadra's "Indigence Possibility" in Muhaqqiq Dawani's Philosophy
Muhammed Meshkat and Majid Yarian
Based on the theory of the principiality of existence, Mulla Sadra interprets the criteria for the dependence of possible things on a cause as the indigence possibility, according to which possible are purely relation and depend on Almighty Necessary. Therefore, many commentators, unlike gnostics and Sufists, interpret the individual unity of existence of Mulla Sadra as follows: Possible existents are not imaginary and illusory beings; rather, they are the same as relation and dependence on the Independent Being and are among the modes of the Necessary Being. This paper intends to explain that Mulla Sadra's theory of indigent possibility can be an adaptation of Muhaqqiq Dawani's ontology, or it might have been influenced by his ontology, his explanation of causality, and his theory of attribution. This is because, through emphasizing the oneness of being, he considers the true existent to be the essence of the Necessary Being. Beside, based on his account of causality, he introduces possible things and effects as the modes of the cause and explicates their being as relations and attributes.
Key Terms
principiality of existence indigence possibility
taste of piety attribution
relation independent
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Reflection of the Insights and Conducts of Shaykh Baha'i and Majlisi (II) in their Religious Treatises
Furugh al-Sadat Rahimpour
Shaykh Baha'i and Muhammed Baqir Majlisi, two of the most prominent and influential figures of the School of Isfahan have left two concise kalami (theological) works called I'tiqadnamah (letter of beliefs). Such I'tiqadnamahs essentially and primarily express, contain, and carry the fundamental beliefs of a school and religion. However, since they contain the direct and plain ideas of the writer, they can, at the same time, be a true representative of the sublime views of the writer and his character and conduct.
In this paper, the writer initially deals with the content of the religious treatises of Shaykh Baha'i and Majlisi, and then, through the windows of these two works, casts a glance at the quality of their insights, methods, and conducts and brings the differences of these two contemporary thinkers concerning the mentioned factors to light.
The statements in Majlisi's treatise are usually in the imperative form indicating obligation (must and must not). In fact, he makes several recommendations and prescriptions to his readers. Moreover, by expanding the domain of necessary religious duties and obligations and negating, rejecting, and excommunicating opponents, he restricts and narrows the realm of believers. On the contrary, Shaykh Baha'i is content with describing and explaining his own ideas without compelling his readers to accept them. Furthermore, there is no sign of excommunication and restriction in his treatise.
Shaykh Baha'i has devoted two third of his treatise to practical problems in Islam, whereas Majlisi has mainly focused on commenting on religious beliefs and, in the part on acts, he has just explained the preliminaries for acts and provided some ethical recommendations.
Key Terms
Shaykh Baha'i Majlisi
treatise of beliefs (risalah I'tiqadiyyah)
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Mulla Rajab'ali versus Mulla Sadra concerning the Discussion of Mental Existence
Ali Karabasizadeh Isfahani, Farideh Kuhrang Beheshti
and Sana Jawanmardi
Man's awareness is of two types: He is aware of either his own existence or affairs other than his essence. One of the most important and difficult problems in the field of epistemology is how man attains the knowledge of the external world. Although this problem had always existed in the history of philosophy, both in the West and East, and occupied the minds of philosophers, it had still remained an unsolvable problem until Mulla Sadra proposed the term "mental existence" and, in this way, considered the problem solved. The philosophers before him believed that knowledge and ideas occurred to the mind, while Mulla Sadra maintained that the human soul is creative and can deny the external existence of the quiddities existing in the outside, create them exactly in the same way, and grant them a mental existence. Against Mulla Sadra, there was the well-known philosopher of the philosophical School of Isfahan, Mulla Rajab'ali, who led another philosophical trend in the same school. As a transcendental philosopher with kalami interests, he could not accept any of the principles, ideas, and arguments of Mulla Sadra's philosophy and tried to reject them. The reason was that he considered the Sadrain Transcendent Philosophy to be against the Qur'anic verses and Islamic traditions. One of the problems he opposed was the problem of mental existence. In fact, Rajab'ali Tabrizi was one of the strictest opponents of the theory of mental existence and had criticized it in his treatise of Usul asifiyyah. In this paper, the writers have dealt with Mulla Sadra's ideas and arguments on the demonstration of mental existence, Mulla Rajab'ali's objections to this discussion, and the answers given to these criticisms in Mulla Sadra's philosophy.
Key Terms
Philosophical School of Isfahan Mulla Sadra
Mulla Rajab'ali Tabrizi mental existence
knowledge
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Hermeneutic Horizons of the Transcendent Philosophy and Mulla Sadra's Social and Cultural Mission
Seyyed Mehdi Imami Jum'ah
Islamic philosophy, particularly, Mulla Sadra's philosophy, enjoys certain hermeneutic perspectives which have not attracted much attention yet. In this paper, the writer has tried to deal with some of the subtle hermeneutic principles of the Transcendent Philosophy. However, he does not intend to provide a comprehensive account of Mulla Sadra's hermeneutic principles or to defend them. Rather, he merely wishes to clarify three points within the confinements of his knowledge:
1. Hermeneutic is the center of the Transcendent Philosophy.
2. Hermeneutic was considered a historical, social, and cultural mission for Mulla Sadra.
3. Because of the mission he felt on his shoulders, Mulla Sadra played an important role in this field.
His hermeneutic principles and his social-cultural mission as to disseminating them greatly enriched the philosophical School of Isfahan and led to the emergence of some novel perspectives there. A review and study of such perspectives, as well as a reconstruction and expansion of them, can result in the modernization of this School and make it more efficient.
Key Terms
the Transcendent Philosophy hermeneutic
cultural mission social mission
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Isfahan's School of Kalam
Muhammed Taqi Subhani and Muhammed Ja'far Reza'i
The School of Isfahan was developed with the rise of the Safavid Dynasty and through the Safavid kings' support of Shi'ism and inviting the Shi'ite scholars to Isfahan. The appropriate philosophical atmosphere that the Safavids created in this city led to the presence, consolidation, and depth of all the kalami trends of the past. In this paper, the writers have introduced Isfahan's School of kalam (theology) through a study of three kalami trends: 1. The hadith-oriented trend of kalam, which had two philosophical origins and was, on the one hand, under the influence of Jabal 'Amil's hadith-oriented trend and, on the other hand, under the influence of Traditionism (Ikhbari trend); 2. The philosophical rationalist kalami trend, which in fact continued the way of Shiraz's School of Philosophy; 3. The non-philosophical rationalist kalami trend, which was the extension of the Imamiyyah kalami trend in Hillah. Unlike the second group, which introduced the ideas of philosophers to the realm of kalam, the last group only used the philosophical terms and criticized the views of philosophers in their teachings.
Key Terms
Isfahan's School of kalam hadith-oriented kalam
philosophical and non-philosophical rationalist kalam
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A Critical Study of the Three-Fold Division of Predication in Mir Damad
Mahmud Zera'atpisheh
In his al-Ufuq al-mubin, Mir Damad has provided a three-fold division of predication: 1) Predication of the thing on itself, 2) common technical predication, and 3) primary essential predication. This classification was unprecedented and is not even seen after Mir Damad. The most important feature of this division is that there the predication of the thing on itself is considered an independent form of predication, which is the focus of this paper. It seems that Seyyed Sanad's scrutiny concerning the element of "conceptual difference" regarding predication, Muhaqqiq Dawani's objection to it, and finally Mir Damad's judging between them together functioned as an introduction to propounding this division. Moreover, neglecting Mir Damad's judgment after he passed away apparently resulted in forgetting the independence of the "predication of the thing on itself". It is because of the same negligence that most recent thinkers believe that this kind of predication is a kind of primary essential predication.
Key Terms
predication of the thing on itself multiplicity of intension
primary essential predication common technical predication
mentally-posited difference
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A Critical Study of the Principles of Negative Theology with reference to Mulla Sadra's Ideas
Muhammed Mehdi Meshkati and Mehdi Mansuri
Negative theology or transcendental wisdom is a kind of knowledge that mainly intends to explain the negative aspects of what is related to it instead of referring to its affirmative aspects. In other words, since, according to this discipline, the knowledge of the characteristics of the Divine Essence cannot be attained, one must know about what the Divine Essence "is not", rather than "is", qualified with.
This view has a long history, although there are some disagreements among those who advocate it. This theory has entered various fields including semantics and indicates that one cannot speak of God's attributes in the same way that they talk about the same attributes in other existents. The same view has also emerged in Islamic philosophy and kalam based on a series of specific principles such as ontological difference, equivocality of names, interdependence of the equivocality of meaning and the knowledge of the Divine Essence, and the literal interpretation of traditions. However, each of these principles suffers from some potentially basic problems. These problems are rooted in the essence of the principles of this view separately. Nevertheless, there is a corrupt succession that the whole of this theory can lead to, which cannot be discussed in this short paper. Here, the writers have first tried to provide a concise account of each of the presented principles and then criticize it on the basis of the existing philosophical principles, particularly the principles of the Transcendent Philosophy. Finally, they conclude that the basic principles of this view are altered and, thus, it cannot be defended and accepted in the field of theology.
Key Terms
negative theology transcendental wisdom
equivocality of names equivocality of meaning
gradation analogy