Quarterly of the History of Philosophy

Volume 8

Whitehead on Substance

Rostam Shahmohammedi

This paper intends to provide an analysis of Whitehead's view of substance in its traditional or Aristotelian sense based on his process cosmological principles. According to this analysis, he sees the roots of modern scientific materialism in Aristotelian substance and, following this, replaces the concept of substance with the concept of actual being within the framework of his own philosophy. The important point is that this does not mean his total rejection of substance. In fact, we can say that, on the one hand, Whitehead has a negative view of substance in the sense that he sees it inconsistent with his own cosmological principles from an ontological point of view and rejects it. On the other hand, he has a positive view of substance and considers it useful for common purposes of life in linguistic and practical respects. Therefore, it is concluded that, although Whitehead has seriously criticized Aristotelian substance and even substituted it with another concept, he has not totally rejected it.

Key Terms

substance                                                                     actual being

metaphysics                                                                 process   cosmology

language

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A Comparative Study of the Annual Destruction and Renewal of the Universe in Middle-East Mythology

Hossein Heydari and Ali Bahari

Man has always had a mythological view of the universe. The birth and death of the world constitute the dimensions of this view. Teleology has always played an important role in the quality of man's view of being and its philosophy. This problem has also attracted serious attention in contemporary philosophical schools.

This paper focuses on the mythological roots of this dimension of human thought and tries to analyze the different roots and forms of the annual renewal of the universe in the mythology of the Middle East as well as the consequences of this tradition for the quality of contemporary man's attitude to life.

In order to find the roots of this problem, the writers have initially studied its relationship with the creation of the universe and, then, with history, mythology, and different historical interpretations. They have also reviewed the various human beliefs and traditions for escaping from history (the annual revival of the universe and the periodical revival of the universe) as instances of this effort. They have also concluded that in this renewal belief this responsibility was on the shoulders of certain divine beings, then the king, and then the Storm Hero.

Finally, the writers compare the story of Noah's Storm with other myths of the Middle East, such as the similar Sumerian, Babylonian, and Hebrew narratives as well as with soothsayers' stories.

Key Terms

myth                                                           cosmology

teleology                                                      renewal of the universe

micro-year                                                   macro-year

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A Dialogue on Aristotle's Philosophy: A Symbol of the Period of Transition

Hossein Kalbasi Ashtari

What is quoted from Aristotle today is usually based on the works he created during the last period of his philosophical life, when he was involved in scientific activities in the Peripatetic school of Lyceum. In other words, they are based on the notes he taught at this school under the categories of physics, metaphysics, ethics, politics, art, etc.

The works of the first and second periods of Aristotle's life either lacked enough attraction for other thinkers or were extremely technical and specialized. Therefore, they seem to have played a minor role in the development of his philosophical system. However, the studies conducted during the recent decades have revealed that his later works not only are far from being secondary and peripheral but also constitute the basis of the main structure of his philosophy and play a key role in the correct understanding and interpretation of his thoughts. For example, his interpretation of Plato's Ideas have commonly been summarized in the form of a critique; however, an analysis of his later works in this regard indicates that in a period of his philosophical life, this theory and all of its consequences had a significant presence but developed a critical aspect during a specific period of time. In this paper, through the study of one of the most important works of this period, Dialogue on Philosophy, the writer has examined some dimensions of Aristotle's ontological interpretation in the second period or the so-called period of transition.

Key Terms

Ideal numbers                                             the magi and ancient wisdom

universal soul                                               spherical souls

divinity of the universe

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Plato's Influence on Farabi's Political Philosophy

Alireza Sadra and Davood Paran

Farabi's virtuous city (Medina fadilah) in Islamic political philosophy is usually compared with Plato's utopia. If this comparison in relation to Farabi's founding of "political philosophy" is correct, the study of this point, which was developed in the middle period of Islam, can illuminate the reasons of the failures witnessed more recently in Islamic countries. The purpose of the writer in this paper is to explore the effect of Plato's political philosophy on the authoritarian design of the Muslim philosopher's virtuous city through a text-oriented explanation of Farabi's political philosophy following a comparative method of analysis. In other words, unlike those who have commonly tried to forefront some of the religious aspects of his newly founded science because of his being a Muslim, the writers of this paper, by assuming the existence of a philosophical basis for the ideas of the Second Teacher, seek its original roots in Platonic ideas. That is why the distinctive feature of this paper is avoiding the modern and traditional ideological terminologies in order to demonstrate or reject the absolute truth of Farabi's ideas.

Key Terms

Farabi                                                         Plato

virtuous city                                                 utopia

happiness                                                    virtue

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Unanimity of Mulla Sadra and Tusi Concerning Knowledge and the Intellect

'Abdulhamid Radawi

In the philosophies of Mulla Sadra and Tusi, the intellect is the most supreme faculty of the soul, and intellectual knowledge is the highest level of knowledge. Both of them agree that rationality is the most fundamental of all human characteristics, with the difference that the main criterion for Mulla Sadra is theoretical rationality, while for Tusi it is practical rationality. The present paper is devoted to a comparative study of the two concepts of the intellect and knowledge from the viewpoints of these two philosophers.

Although Tusi believed in the relationship between the rational soul and the Active Intellect and considered it as the mediator of the soul's moving from potency to actuality, he does not accept its union with the Active Intellect. However, Mulla Sadra stipulates that the human rational soul unites with the actual intellect and maintains that the perception of this problem, like believing in the union of the intellect and the intelligible, is a divine gift. He has faith in the unity of human intellect and is also aware of the nature of knowledge and its end and subject. In fact, his belief in the connection of sciences and their correlation in certain aspects is rooted in the same awareness.

Mulla Sadra believes that the reality of knowledge is the same as existence, as knowledge means the appearance of known things and their affixation in souls or minds. Unlike Tusi, he considers perception and knowledge as a kind of a multi-level and graded existence and argues that all of its levels and grades, including sense perception, imaginal perception, and intellectual perception, are immaterial. In his view, the intellect consists of all intelligible things. In contrast, Tusi maintains that in acquired knowledge man's relationship with the external object is through the form developed in the human mind. However, Mulla Sadra is of the view that, like ignorance, knowledge is divided into simple and compound types. Through referring knowledge to being and existence, he has transformed the domain of the common disagreements concerning the quiddative nature of knowledge.

Key Terms

Mulla Sadra                                                 Tusi

rationality                                                    knowledge

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School of Shiraz and the Philosophical Foundations of the Transcendent Philosophy

A'ala Turani and Monireh Soltanahmadi

After the Mongol's Attack, the centers for science and culture were transferred from Khorasan and Transoxiana to Shiraz. As a result, this region was considered to be the main center of Islamic philosophy before Mulla Sadra, which presented such great figures as Qutb al-Din Shirazi, Mir Seyyed Sharif Jurjani, Muhaqqiq Dawani, and the family of Dashtaki. The present research, while introducing the philosophical characteristics of the School of Shiraz and the ideas of the thinkers associated with it, examines the relationship between the philosophical principles of this school with those of Mulla Sadra's Transcendent Philosophy and the quality of the effects the great thinkers of the school of Shiraz exercised on the development of the philosophical principles of the Transcendent Philosophy. Finally, it explains why many of the elements and principles of this school of philosophy are rooted in the theoretical foundations of the School of Shiraz. The most obvious instance of this point is the combination of the principles of Peripatetic and Illuminationist philosophies in the Transcendent Philosophy.

Key Terms

School of Shiraz                                          Qutb al-Din Shirazi

Seyyed Sharif Jurjani                                     Muhaqqiq Dawani  

Dashtaki Family                                           Transcendent Philosophy

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The Rise of Sadrian Philosophy and its Role in the Revival of the Philosophy of Islamic Art

Akbar Faydei

In Sadrian philosophy, the intellect, religion, and intuition have come together in a rational way in order to pave the way for the acquisition of knowledge and attaining the truth. Being inspired by Shaykh Baha'i and Mir Damad, Mulla Sadra presented a new manifestation of Islamic philosophy through relying on insight alongside tradition and benefitting from intellection alongside devotion and intuition. With the rise of the Transcendent Philosophy, many religious principles and profound philosophical ideas of the People of the Prophet's Household have been clarified and perceived after centuries of philosophical debates. In fact, several religious, gnostic, and philosophical views and principles have completely reconciled with each other in this school.

In the Safawid era, which is the period of interaction of philosophy and religion and adoption of a religious nature by all teachings in the world of Islam, gnosis greatly influenced the mind of philosophers, theologians, and jurisprudents. As a result, the theoretical and practical Islamic teachings (Peripatetic philosophy and Illuminationist philosophy, kalam, gnosis, and jurisprudence) came together and created a kind of rational thinking which mixed with religious and dhawqi (related to intellectual intuition) thinking.

The Islamic teachings and beliefs and the ideas of the philosophers of the Safawid era have now affected all the common artistic modes and forms and, as a result, truth, wisdom, and unity have appeared in Islamic art. Presently, the liveliness and energy of Islamic art is rooted in the inner presence of Muslim artists in the sacred realm of religion and holy and prophetic innermost.

Key Terms

intellect                                                        Shar'

intuition                                                      Sadrian wisdom

Islamic art