• OpenAccess
    • List of Articles نفس

      • Open Access Article

        1 - Historical Development of the Problem of Vaporous Spirit in Sadrian Philosophy
        Mohammad Miri
        The present paper is devoted to a historical study of some of the developments made by Mulla Sadra regarding the problem of vaporous spirit. Since this spirit is the mediator of the soul’s administration of the corporeal body, he assimilates it sometimes to cloud – whic More
        The present paper is devoted to a historical study of some of the developments made by Mulla Sadra regarding the problem of vaporous spirit. Since this spirit is the mediator of the soul’s administration of the corporeal body, he assimilates it sometimes to cloud – which is a gnostic term, sometimes to a heavenly body, and sometimes to the “Throne” or the “Divine Seat”. This is because all of them share the quality of being the intermediary between their higher and lower levels and affect the process of transferring emanation and prudence from their higher worlds to their lower worlds. These similies of Mulla Sadra can be interpreted in line with the principle of the correspondence of the macrocosmos and the microcosmos. Some of these similies as well as his use of the above principle in discussing the vaporous spirit were unprecedented in the history of Islamic philosophy. Mulla Sadra’s other historical innovation was the idea of the gradedness of Man’s existence. In fact, based on his graded view of Man, he considers the vaporous spirit to be the intermediary between the imaginal level and the corporeal body. In this way, he explains the place of the vaporous spirit and its grades in the graded human existence. Accordingly, he solves the problem of establishing a relationship between the immaterial soul and the corporeal body by resorting to the vaporous spirit in a way to avoid the objection advanced against the Peripatetics in this regard. In the Sadrian view, the vaporous spirit is the main body of the soul, and the corporeal body is the sheath and cover of this spirit. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        2 - The Body-Soul Relation in the Transcendent Philosophy and Ibn Arabi’s School
        Mohammad Miri
        There are several similarities between the philosophical view of the Transcendent Philosophy and the gnostic view of Ibn Arabi’s school of the quality of the body-soul relation. Both of them, based on certain considerations, believe in the oneness of the body and soul. More
        There are several similarities between the philosophical view of the Transcendent Philosophy and the gnostic view of Ibn Arabi’s school of the quality of the body-soul relation. Both of them, based on certain considerations, believe in the oneness of the body and soul. At the same time, while accepting the existence of a huge gap between the rational soul and corporeal body, they emphasize that the existence of the steam-like spirit is not enough to establish the body-soul relation and argue that the existence of an Ideal body and level, which stands between the steam-like spirit and rational soul, is necessary for this relation to be realized. Accordingly, based on the views of both schools, the intellectual and rational soul possesses three bodies which appear alongside each other vertically. That is, it first belongs to the Ideal body, then to the steam-like spirit, and then to corporeal body. In other words, the rational soul administers the corporeal body through two intermediaries, namely, the Ideal body and the steam-like spirit. Moreover, both the Transcendent Philosophy and Ibn Arabi’s school explain the place of the rational soul, Ideal body, steam-like spirit, and corporeal body as the levels of the microcosm and the correspondence of each with the levels of macrocosm based on the principle of the “correspondence of macrocosm and microcosm”. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        3 - Psychology in Ibn Sina and Ibn Miskawayah
        Seyyed Ahmad  Hosseinee Maryam  Gomari
        The most important basis of Ibn Miskawayah’s philosophy of ethics is his psychology. In his discussions of ethics, he intends to introduce the exclusive characteristic of human beings; he demonstrates that there exists in Man something superior to the corporeal body, na More
        The most important basis of Ibn Miskawayah’s philosophy of ethics is his psychology. In his discussions of ethics, he intends to introduce the exclusive characteristic of human beings; he demonstrates that there exists in Man something superior to the corporeal body, namely, the soul. By means of their rational soul, human beings can attain a transcendent life as befits the station of being a human. In order to present his view of the quality of Man’s access to happiness, Ibn Miskawayah initially proves the existence of the immaterial human soul and then explains its exclusive features. However, since a comparative study contributes to a better understanding of philosophical theories, the writers have introduced Ibn Miskawayah’s psychological theories in comparison to those of Ibn Sina. The present paper examines the concept of the soul in the views of these two distinguished philosophers and also refers to the whatness of the soul, existence, origination, the soul-body relation, and the faculties and subsistence of the soul. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        4 - A Critical Evaluation of Ibn Sina’s Arguments on the Presential Perception of Essence
        somayyeh ajalli sahar kavandi
        According to Islamic philosophers, the soul’s self-perception is of the type of presential knowledge. In other words, the soul’s awareness of its own essence, unlike what Descartes states in his concept of Cogito, does not occur through external objects, body organs, or More
        According to Islamic philosophers, the soul’s self-perception is of the type of presential knowledge. In other words, the soul’s awareness of its own essence, unlike what Descartes states in his concept of Cogito, does not occur through external objects, body organs, or soulish acts. Rather, the soul perceives its self free from its acts and states and with no reliance on the activities of material body. The prominent Islamic philosopher, Ibn Sina, has posed different arguments in order to demonstrate this claim, the most important of which is the argument of “floating man” or “suspended man”. However, an evaluation of such arguments seems to reveal that they are not capable of demonstrating their claim and, under the best circumstances, they can merely prove the difference between the soul’s self-knowledge and its knowledge of other objects. Therefore, it seems that either more solid arguments are necessary to demonstrate the soul’s independence in self-perception or the soul should not be considered independent of the body and, particularly, the brain in this regard. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        5 - Heraclitus, Ethics, and Knowledge
        Majid  Mollayousefi Maryam  Samadieh
        Heraclitus was one of the important pre-Socratic philosophers who had some scattered notes on ethics. In order to understand his ethical views, in addition to referring to his existing notes, it is necessary to pay attention to the context in which his philosophy was fo More
        Heraclitus was one of the important pre-Socratic philosophers who had some scattered notes on ethics. In order to understand his ethical views, in addition to referring to his existing notes, it is necessary to pay attention to the context in which his philosophy was formed. Heraclitus was under the influence of two traditions of his time. The first was the influence of Homer and early poets and philosophers, such as Solon, Bias of Priene, and the like, who were distinctively characterized by believing in human-like Gods or anthropomorphism. The other was the influence of a new scientific and technical tradition which was developed during the same century in Miletus under the influence of some figures such as Thales and Anaximander, who were mainly concerned with cosmology, that is, an understanding of the quality of the creation, survival and, finally, annihilation of the world order. In fact, Heraclitus’s philosophy can be viewed as a bridge between these two different traditions. Since he considered the world order and human order to be the same, it can be said that his main purpose and concern was explaining the status of human beings in the physical world and not the physical world itself. The ethics of Heraclitus, similar to those of other ancient Greek philosophers, described a kind of ethics of virtue, the core of which comprised virtue and happiness. In the field of virtue, he dealt with both moral virtues and intellectual virtues. Regarding moral virtues, through distinguishing bodily joys from non-bodily joys, he ultimately rejected excessive acts and introduced moderation in joys as the criterion for human behavior. With respect to intellectual virtues, Heraclitus also relied on the knowledge of wisdom and acknowledged that wisdom does not simply mean to have vast knowledge; rather, it means a kind of conscious and well-scrutinized knowledge which conforms to logos. As a result, he mainly emphasized intellectual rather than ethical virtues. Finally, he viewed man’s happiness a result of knowing and behaving in line with logos. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        6 - Truth of Man and the True Man in Abulhassan ‘Amiri and Mulla Sadra
        Hassan  Rahbar
        The discussion of man’s existence and his truth and station in the world of creation has always attracted the attention of philosophers as one of the important philosophical issues. Muslim philosophers have also dealt with the problem of man in their discussions. The fu More
        The discussion of man’s existence and his truth and station in the world of creation has always attracted the attention of philosophers as one of the important philosophical issues. Muslim philosophers have also dealt with the problem of man in their discussions. The fundamental point in philosophical anthropology is to speak about the truth of man as a distinct and chosen existent among all others. Abulhassan ‘Amiri Nishaburi, the Iranian Muslim philosopher, is one of the thinkers who has posed certain discussions regarding the truth of man in his philosophical works. As a result, here the writers have compared his views in this regard with those of Mulla Sadra as a distinguished philosopher with some novel theories about the truth of man. In doing so, they have tried to analyze their ideas and reveal their points of agreement and disagreement. Here, their conception of man as a creature of God composed of soul and body, their conception of the soul as the truth of man and, as a result, their opposition to materialistic approaches can be considered to be among their common points. On the other hand, their views concerning the body-soul relationship and its quality can be viewed as their points of difference. Mulla Sadra believes that the body-soul relationship is a necessary and ontological one, and introduces the steam-like spirit as the mediator between the two. Then, by posing the theory of corporeal origination, he provides a more comprehensive theory. Nevertheless, ‘Amiri considers this relationship to be an accidental one and does provide a clear explanation to justify his position in this regard. It is emphasized that both of them conceive of the intellect as one of the levels of the soul, the element distinguishing man from other existents, and the criterion for the truth of man. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        7 - Substantiality of the Soul in Ibn Sina and Mulla Sadra
        Maliheh  Saberi Najafabadi
        One of the important problems of Islamic philosophy is the demonstration of the substantiality of the soul. In spite of their agreement concerning the substantiality of the soul, Mulla Sadra and Ibn Sina have some basic disagreements in the interpretation and explanatio More
        One of the important problems of Islamic philosophy is the demonstration of the substantiality of the soul. In spite of their agreement concerning the substantiality of the soul, Mulla Sadra and Ibn Sina have some basic disagreements in the interpretation and explanation of this principle. The extent of these disagreements has also stretched to some critical issues such the explanation of the soul, its changes, and its relationship with other faculties, which are the focus of this paper. According to Ibn Sina, possible beings consist of two analytic-rational components, that is, existence and quiddity. He also maintains that the source of the division of categories, under which substance and accident fall, is quiddity itself. The difference between substance and accident also lies in the fact that existence is substance by itself, and existence is accident through the other. Therefore, the soul is an immaterial substance that performs voluntary administrative acts and perceives universal affairs. It has some branches or faculties through which it carries out its acts. In this approach, the differences among human souls, from their highest to lowest levels, are rooted in accidents, and no change occurs in their substance. In Mulla Sadra’s view, too, accident has no independence before substance, thus it is a dependent truth enjoying an existence depending on the other. Nevertheless, based on the principle of the principiality of existence, the criterion for individuation is existence; an existence which underlies the individuation of a subject and is the referent for substance itself and a referent for all accidents. In other words, it is a single existence that is a referent for man with various accidents. The soul is a substance commensurate with existence and enjoys an essential and graded existence the accidents of which are considered to be the grades of this truth. The soul’s faculties are its modes and grades, and the perfections attained by the soul originate in its unity with perceptive forms. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        8 - A Historical Glance at the Move from Self-Knowledge to Knowledge of God in Peripatetic and Illuminationist Philosophies
        Seyyed Mohammed Kazem  Alavi
        The development and consequences of self-knowledge is one of the important discussions in Islamic philosophy. One of the most noteworthy of these consequences, according to the hadith of “One who has self-knowledge verily knows God”, is to know the Creator. The explanat More
        The development and consequences of self-knowledge is one of the important discussions in Islamic philosophy. One of the most noteworthy of these consequences, according to the hadith of “One who has self-knowledge verily knows God”, is to know the Creator. The explanation and interpretation of this hadith was not taken seriously in earlier schools of Islamic philosophy. In fact, it was not until the early periods of the Schools of Shiraz and Isfahan up to the period of the dominance of the Transcendent Philosophy among contemporary thinkers that great attention was devoted to clarifying and interpreting it. This paper is intended to discuss the background of these explanations and analyses in two of the early schools of Islamic philosophy, Peripatetic and Illuminationist philosophies, and even in those preceding them. The interpretation of the hadiths on self-knowledge in Islamic philosophy is united with psychology. That is why its background is traceable to Greek philosophy. In books on Islamic philosophy, some ideas and words have been attributed in this regard to Greek early philosophers, who are considered to mark the beginning of writing the history of this issue. The narration of these hadiths and similar words began during the first periods of Islamic philosophy with Ikhwan al-Safa (Brethren of Purity). They mainly focused on the importance of self-knowledge and the immateriality of the soul, which is more prominent in the Peripatetic philosophy considering the significance of psychology and self-knowledge in this school. Through relying on these hadiths, Ibn Sina demonstrated the most important problem of self-knowledge, that is, the immateriality of the soul, and uses it as a religious confirmation of this point versus the view of mutikallimun as to the corporeality of the soul. In Illuminationist philosophy, given the fundamental status of the dimension of the epistemology of the soul, a more basic approach to the relationship between self-knowledge and the knowledge of God is observed. This approach is introduced as an argument in order to demonstrate the existence of God and His attributes; it is an argument which is indeed superior to other arguments. What is clearly witnessed in this historical process is an interpretation referring to the possibility of self-knowledge and the possibility of the move from that knowledge to the knowledge of God, which is considered to be gradational in its most Illuminationist explanation. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        9 - A Critique of Innate Ideas in Descartes’ Philosophy Based on Sadrian Principles
        Maryam  Samadieh عبدالرزاق  حسامی فر
        Descartes believed in the existence of innate ideas in human beings. He maintained that the idea of God is the most important of such ideas which He, similar to a dexterous craftsman, has imprinted on our primordial nature (fitrah). The interpreters of Cartesian philoso More
        Descartes believed in the existence of innate ideas in human beings. He maintained that the idea of God is the most important of such ideas which He, similar to a dexterous craftsman, has imprinted on our primordial nature (fitrah). The interpreters of Cartesian philosophy have adopted various methods to interpret the place of innate ideas in Descartes’ philosophy. Based on one of these interpretations, these ideas potentially exist and are present in the soul prior to experiencing them, and their appearance and actuality comes after their sense perception. However, based on another interpretation, the innateness of ideas does not necessarily indicate their permanent presence in the mind as, in this case, no idea can ever be innate. Rather, it means that we are capable of creating such ideas and can perceive their truth through sufficient mental and rational contemplation and needless of the knowledge acquired through the senses. It seems that the first interpretation conforms more to Descartes’ own view as to the potential existence and presence of such ideas. Accordingly, it is inferred that the existence of innate ideas in its Cartesian sense is not consistent with Mullā Ṣadrā’s philosophical principles because he denies the existence of any kind of concept and judgement prior to experiencing them in the mind. Moreover, based on Sadrian principles, the human soul is a corporeal substance void of any kind of concept and judgement at the beginning of its creation, but it gradually develops through its trans-substantial motion until it reaches the level of intellectual immateriality. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        10 - Subsistence of the Soul in School of Khorasan: Self-Knowledge in Mīrzā Mahdī Isfahānī, Shaykh Mujtabā Qazvīnī, and Ayatullah Murvārīd
        Ibrahim Alipour  Ghorbani Ghomi
        The School of Khorasan follows an anti-philosophy approach and believes in the separation of the fields of revelation, intellect, and gnosis from each other. It also attends to the surface meaning of religious texts and has a different view of the soul and its subsisten More
        The School of Khorasan follows an anti-philosophy approach and believes in the separation of the fields of revelation, intellect, and gnosis from each other. It also attends to the surface meaning of religious texts and has a different view of the soul and its subsistence. The advocates of this School believe that the soul is a delicate body which is different from the soul only in terms of its accidents. They also maintain that it receives certain perfections such as knowledge and intellect, which are luminar (nūrī), immaterial, single, and external realities, merely through Almighty’s blessing. Man will always remain a corporeal being not only at the moment of creation but also to the end of what they unite with. In the School of Khorasan, self-knowledge is a necessary introduction to demonstrating the subsistence of the soul so that immortality is considered to be secondary to the knowledge of the truth. The soul, which lives with the body in worldly life, continues its life in the intermediate world needless of the body and independently in a body-like form. However, it is returned to the worldly body in the Hereafter and is rewarded or punished alongside it. This view suffers from some problems as follows: 1) equating the soul with body requires spiritual and corporeal resurrections to refer to the same process; 2) the approach of this school lacks internal consistency at times, and some diversity and conflict of ideas can be observed there, and 3) some of the concepts and related problems have not been explained correctly. Following an analytic library method, the present study explains and evaluates the views of three prominent figures of this school regarding the truth of the soul and its subsistence. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        11 - Bilateral Relationship of Metaphysics of Light with the Dynamic World and Illuminationist Psychology in Dionysius and Suhrawardī
        Abdolreza Safari
        The present paper basically hypothesizes that the recent Neoplatonic philosophy is entangled with Christian and Jewish traditions. Accordingly, it would be possible to match Dionysius’ thoughts with those of Illuminationist and mystic philosophers, particularly Suhrawar More
        The present paper basically hypothesizes that the recent Neoplatonic philosophy is entangled with Christian and Jewish traditions. Accordingly, it would be possible to match Dionysius’ thoughts with those of Illuminationist and mystic philosophers, particularly Suhrawardī, in the world of Islam. In spite of their different religious and gnostic backgrounds, both Dionysius and Suhrawardī present the same metaphysical system that is based on the mysterious concept and creative role of light. The present study, while relying on the principles of this system, focuses on the similarities between their philosophies in three respects: metaphysics, psychology, and structures that lead to explaining the theorem of the illuminated universe. The author, on the one hand, intends to explain the core of this similarity based on the creative identity of light in order to reveal the emanated identity of the world and the effusion of light. On the other hand, he wishes to demonstrate the basis of their mutual metaphysical and Illuminationist relation to cosmology and fundamental principles of psychology and intuition. Based on the three-fold similarities of these two systems, three conclusions can be derived: 1- origination of the system of the world through emanation in divinity, 2- the reliance of the dynamic structure of the world on Illuminationist action in the whole world, 3- psychology of intuition as the basis of the deiformity of the soul in the world of lights. Nevertheless, the author shows that there is an obvious difference between the two thinkers’ metaphysical systems regarding the way the soul can attain devotion and deiformity. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        12 - Death in the View of Abul-ḥassan ‘Āmirī (with a Focus on its Historical Place)
        Einullah  Khademi
        Death as one of the most definite and certain events in human life has always attracted the attention of numerous thinkers. Modern philosophers have shown special attention to it particularly in their discussion of the meaning of life. Abul-ḥassan al-‘Āmirī is one of th More
        Death as one of the most definite and certain events in human life has always attracted the attention of numerous thinkers. Modern philosophers have shown special attention to it particularly in their discussion of the meaning of life. Abul-ḥassan al-‘Āmirī is one of the thinkers in the Islamic tradition whose view of death is of great historical significance. ‘Āmirī mainly pays attention to death while focusing on sensory soul and defines death as the annihilation and separation of sensory soul from the body. He considers sensory soul as the link between the soul (as an immaterial thing) and body (as a material thing) that is annihilated along with the body at the time of death. However, the rational soul is not destroyed. It can be said that ‘Āmirī had a medical approach to the problem of death and was influenced by religious texts at the same time. From the philosophical and religious aspect, ‘Āmirī rejected the M‘utazilites’ view of death and used the term nuz’ (dying) in order to provide a more profound concept and understanding of death. He also presents some arguments for the immortality of the soul and, at the same time, benefits from the concept of “vision” and its different types for a better perception of death. He believes that fear of death is one of the obstacles to a deep understanding of death and maintains that the attention to the necessary joys of life and luminous world and a change of view of death are critical for a more accurate encounter with this issue. One of the weak points of ‘Āmirī’s discussion of death could be lack of a focus on different types of death, particularly voluntary death. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        13 - Effects of the Views of Ibn Sīnā and Fakhr al-Dīn Rāzī on Mullā Ṣadrā’s Theory of the Immateriality of the Soul
        Davood  Mohamadiany
        The immateriality of the soul has always been one of the important psychological discussions in Islamic philosophy and given rise to various related theories. Mullā Ṣadrā has discussed the problem more than any other philosopher and claims to have some innovative views More
        The immateriality of the soul has always been one of the important psychological discussions in Islamic philosophy and given rise to various related theories. Mullā Ṣadrā has discussed the problem more than any other philosopher and claims to have some innovative views regarding the imaginal immateriality of the soul. Here, the author intends to criticize Mullā Ṣadrā’s view based on a study of the views of Ibn Sīnā and Fakhr al-Dīn Rāzī. Mullā Ṣadrā claims that he is the first to have provided a theory on the immateriality of the soul; however, a study of the works of Ibn Sīnā and Fakhr al-Dīn Rāzī reveals that this theory has indeed a longer history than what Mullā Ṣadrā attests. Ibn Sīnā’s words on the demonstration of the immateriality of the soul are quite clear; nevertheless, they raise some doubt concerning the imaginal immateriality of the soul. Ibn Sīnā and Mullā Ṣadrā adduce two different reasons to prove this immateriality. However, Mullā Ṣadrā has also demonstrated imaginal and super rational immateriality of the soul and rejected some of Ibn Sīnā’s reasons about the immateriality of the soul. The present paper criticizes Mullā Ṣadrā’s view and approach in this regard. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        14 - Aristotelean Roots of the Soul’s Corporeal Origination in Mullā Ṣadrā’s View
        Hamideh  Ansari Hassan Fathi Morteza  Shajari
        Philosophers have presented different views about the whatness and truth of the soul based on dualism (immateriality of the soul based on the pre-eternity and origination of the soul before the existence of the body or along with it) or monism (corporeal origination of More
        Philosophers have presented different views about the whatness and truth of the soul based on dualism (immateriality of the soul based on the pre-eternity and origination of the soul before the existence of the body or along with it) or monism (corporeal origination of the soul). Mullā Ṣadrā believes that the soul is corporeally originated. The principles of the Transcendent Philosophy, including the trans-substantial motion, the principiality and gradedness of being, and the corporeal origination of the soul, have made it possible to demonstrate corporeal resurrection. Aristotle also believes that the origination of the soul is corporeal. However, the extent to which Mullā Ṣadrā is influenced by Aristotle’s ideas in this regard has never been studied so far. This paper is intended to explain the Aristotelean roots of Mullā Ṣadrā’s discussion of corporeal origination following a comparative-analytic method. The findings of this study indicate that in defining the soul as a “natural and organic body” and, following it, considering the soul as a formal substance and a primary perfection of the body, as well as believing in the unitary synthesis of the body and the soul and the unity of the faculties of the soul, all indicating the corporeal origination of the soul, Mullā Ṣadrā is under the influence of Aristotle. Nevertheless, Aristotle’s approach suffers from some ambiguity because of the existing implicitness in some of his words and not referring to an explicit standpoint regarding the principiality of existence or quiddity, presence of motion in substance, and gradedness of existence. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        15 - A Critique of the Theory of Transmigration and Shahrzūrī’s Demonstrative Arguments Based on Ibn Sīnā’s Principles
        Mahmud Saidiy
        The theory of the transmigration of the soul is one of the oldest views that has been propounded in the history of thought in order to explain the quality of reward or punishment of human beings and the nature of the eternity of the human soul. Shahrzūrī is one of the m More
        The theory of the transmigration of the soul is one of the oldest views that has been propounded in the history of thought in order to explain the quality of reward or punishment of human beings and the nature of the eternity of the human soul. Shahrzūrī is one of the most prominent Illuminationist philosophers, who has presented a coherent theory for the demonstration of ascending and descending transmigration. He has initially criticized Ibn Sīnā’s arguments on refuting the theory of transmigration and, then, provides some reasons to prove it. The present study demonstrates that Shahrzūrī’s criticisms of Ibn Sīnā’s arguments are wrong because, given the capability of the body, the active intellect grants the soul to the body. To prevent the soul’s lingering for doing acts, there must be a temporal concurrence and equality between the numbers of previous and new between-body states of the soul. Shahrzūrī’s arguments for proving the theory of transmigration are defective because the problems of the inhibition of the gathering of two souls in a body and the lack of concurrence and equality between the previous body of the soul and its next body still remain to be solved. Manuscript profile
      • Open Access Article

        16 - Analysis of Proclus' reading of Aristotle's psychology based on the treatise on soul and theologia
        Hajar Nili Ahmadabadi Hossein Kalbasi Ashtar
        Awareness of the soul and its definition has had a special position and has. This position is somehow reflected in experimental sciences. Aristotle and Proclus, two representatives of the greatest and most influential ancient philosophical schools, namely the philosophy More
        Awareness of the soul and its definition has had a special position and has. This position is somehow reflected in experimental sciences. Aristotle and Proclus, two representatives of the greatest and most influential ancient philosophical schools, namely the philosophy of Masha and the Neoplatonic school, have paid special attention to this field and have dedicated a part of their main writings to this topic. The present article, focusing on the two main sources of the psychology among these two philosophers, aims to identify the points of commonality and difference in their views and to study the evolution and development of the subject, the definition, and what the soul is. While expressing two natural and metaphysical definitions, Aristotle considers the soul to be related to the body in the natural definition. He considers it independent of the body in the metaphysical definition and calls the soul the principle of life of a living being. By expressing natural and metaphysical definitions and a description of the soul, Proclus pursues a path close to Aristotle in his natural and metaphysical definition; But in the descriptive definition, he chooses a different path from Aristotle. He considers the truth of the soul to be self-made, self-animated, self-formed, and self-realized, and he believes that the soul is the principle of life, the cause of bodies, the reason for the existence of objects and their preservation, and in other words, the creator of their uniqueness and continuity. Manuscript profile