Quarterly of the History of Philosophy
Volume 10
Stoics in Mulla Sadra's Philosophy
Zakariya Baharnejad
The rise and development of Stoic philosophy in the third century BC was one of the consequences of the spread of Greek culture in the world of that period. Stoic philosophers lived in three independent periods; however, they were unanimous concerning their general principles. After the development of neo-Platonic philosophy in the third and fourth century (AD), Stoicism was pushed to the sideline and criticized by neo-Platonic philosophers including Plotinus himself. In the Translation Period, Muslim philosophers appreciated some parts of Stoic philosophy. Apparently, the most prominent interpreter of Stoic philosophy among Muslims was Suhrawardi. He was followed by Mulla Sadra, who reflected, commented on, and interpreted the theories and viewpoints of Stoic philosophers in his own works. This paper aims to examine Stoic philosophy from the viewpoint of this muta'alih (theologian) philosopher and remind that there are great differences between the interpretations of Muslim philosophers and Western commentators of this school of philosophy. However, the judgment of the soundness of these two interpretations of Stoic philosophy demands a separate study.
Key Terms
specific forms making
relative existence forms of imagination
gradation truth of existence
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Principle of the Middle Term and its Historical Turning Points in the World of Islam
Muhsen Jahed and Hossein Atrak
After being exposed to the ethical thought of ancient Greece, Muslim thinkers accepted some parts of them and tried to refine some of its other parts. Aristotle's principle of the middle term was one of the ingredients of Greek thought which underwent many changes after entering the world of Islam. Although the Aristotelian version of this principle was not flawless, some Muslim thinkers such as al-Kindi and Miskawayah added to its problems through generalizing it to the rational faculty and the virtue of justice. Another group of Muslim philosophers, such as Mulla Sadra and Ghazzali, by acknowledging the existing defects, did not agree with the above generalization but presented some enlightening suggestions in this regard. The thoughts of these two groups in fact focused on the same problem: the permissibility of generalizing this principle to the rational faculty and the virtue of justice. Nevertheless, there was a third trend in this area that can be distinctly attributed to Tusi as its founder. Without going to extremes, he introduced the qualitative view of vices and virtues along the quantitative view to ethical discussions and, in this way, enriched them more than ever before. The qualitative view which had entered the ethical literature of the World of Islam through Tusi's introduction of the concept of "rada'at" developed a more logical form by 'Izzuddin Iji. The present paper explores the turning points of the applications and perceptions of this principle in the world of Islam.
Key Terms
principle of the middle term rational faculty
virtue of justice temperamental wisdom
concept of rada'at
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Ineffability of Tao in the View of Ancient Chinese Philosophers
Tahereh Tawakkoli
One of the most central concepts in ancient Chinese philosophy and, at the same time, one of the most controversial and mysterious of them all, is the concept of "Tao". This concept is so important that in ancient times it led to the development of a prominent philosophical school called Taoism. This word, which was used before Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism, in the sense of the way of heaven and the way of the human world in Chinese dictionaries and enjoyed a completely objective aspect, has developed a profound metaphysical transcendent meaning in Dao De Jing. Therefore, it has given rise to various interpretations and perceptions of this world. According to Lao Tzu, Tao is beyond all distinctions and divisions and enjoys a completely imperceptible and different nature that is beyond all descriptions. After Lao Tzu, Chang Tzu, as the most prominent thinker of Taoism, interpreted Tao from a point of view slightly different from that of the first master. This paper deals with the views of ancient Chinese philosophers concerning Tao and seeks to explain them.
Key Terms
Tao Lao Tzu
Ming Chang Tzu
Dao De Jing Te yin
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Pythagoreans' View of Number
Sa'id Binay-e Mutlaq and Maryam Damadi
Pythagoras' main concern, like his Milesian predecessors, was to seek the principle based on which all objects and, in other words, the world had come into being. Nevertheless, Milesian philosophers sought this principle in matter, and it was Pythagoras who for the first time searched for it in form. Pythagoreans believed that number was the essence of everything and maintained that numbers have gnostic meanings and independent realities. Pythagorean philosophy was the first school that sought to penetrate the unseen depth of objects. Its followers did not view matter as the truth of the world and believed that beyond the world of annihilation, that is, in the world of eternal essences, there exists the world of harmony and numbers. It is worth mentioning that, more than anything else, Pythagoras was a leader and a religious reformer. This point can be helpful in understanding his interpretation of number.
Key Terms
Pythagoras mathematics
number society
tetractys decade
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The Differences between the Epistemological Views of Ibn Sina and Thomas Acquinas Concerning the Active Intellect
Mazdak Rajabi
In formulating his theory of knowledge, Thomas was directly influenced by Ibn Sina's theory in some respects. However, it must be noted that the epistemological systems of these two thinkers are different from each other in some fundamental aspects particularly concerning the problem of the Active Intellect and the activity of the intelligible form in the human soul. In this paper, while referring to the impacts of Ibn Sina's views on Thomas' theory of knowledge, the writer has tried to highlight the important differences between their theories concerning the existence of the Active Intellect and the intelligible form and reveal why Thomas does not feel a need for assuming the existence of the Active Intellect. He also discusses the consequences of the lack of this issue in Thomas' system of philosophy. However, in Ibn Sina's epistemology all human knowledge depends on the existence of the Active Intellect. Many Western researchers have emphasized that Ibn Rushd's epistemology flourished after Descartes in modern philosophy through considering a universal Active Intellect for the human species and, finally, resulted in man's ethical and epistemological autonomy in Kant's philosophy. Nevertheless, this historical fact has almost been neglected that Thomas' not considering an Active Intellect and believing in the independence of the human intellect has been developed in the modern era and appeared in post-Cartesian epistemology and philosophical systems. One can claim that Thomas' historical role and influence in this regard was not less than that of Ibn Rushd, and perhaps his epistemology is much closer to the epistemology of modern philosophy with respect to such problems. However, in the dominant trends of Islamic philosophy, another direction is followed according to which the human intellect always relies on a Divine intermediary in order to know the world. The interpretations of Ibn Sina and Thomas from Aristotle's self-knowledge have, indeed, followed two different paths until today.
Key Terms
epistemology existence
quiddity intelligible form
sensible form Active Intellect
agent intellect
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Syllogism of Equality and its Validity in Traditional Logic (A Critical Study of Various Approaches and the Introduction of a New Approach)
Murteza Haj Hosseini and Daryush Darwishi
The syllogism of equality which was first propounded in Euclid's book of Principles consists of two premises (Φ = Ψ and Ψ = θ) and a conclusion (Φ = θ). This form of syllogism is greatly similar to the first form of Aristotelian categorical syllogisms because Φ is the primitive term; Ψ is the middle term, and θ is the final term, and the conclusion is established between the two side terms. Thus it appears that the syllogism of equality must be a part of categorical syllogisms of the first form; however, the important problem here is that the basis of this syllogism does not follow Aristotle's definition of syllogism. In his view, a syllogism is a statement in which nothing is required for arriving at a conclusion except the premises of that syllogism. However, this syllogism requires an external premise which can justify the transfer of the equality relation from the premises to the conclusion. Following different approaches, Muslim logicians have tried to establish the validity of the syllogism of equality. Here, the writers evaluate these approaches and, while demonstrating their shortcomings, refer to a new approach in this regard and prove that equality and subsumption (predication) are both of the type of transitive relations. Such relations are transferable from the premises to the conclusion, whereas non-transitive relations, such as a capacity equal to half of something or twice as much as it lacks this feature. Therefore, the correctness of the syllogism of equality and the first form of Aristotelian categorical conjunctive syllogism can be considered to be dependent on the possibility of transition in equality and subsumption relations.
Key Terms
syllogism of equality middle terms
categorical conjunctive syllogism transitive relation
equality subsumption