List of Articles soul

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  1 - 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
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  2 - Tusi’s Innovations concerning the Theory of Moderation
  Hossein  Atrak
  The theory of moderation is one of the common ethical theories among Muslim philosophers. According to this theory, all ethical virtues enjoy middle term, and all moral vices are rooted in going to extremes. Although the scholars of Islamic ethics were influenced by Pla More

  The theory of moderation is one of the common ethical theories among Muslim philosophers. According to this theory, all ethical virtues enjoy middle term, and all moral vices are rooted in going to extremes. Although the scholars of Islamic ethics were influenced by Plato and Aristotle in posing their theory of moderation, they also presented several innovations in this regard. Khwajah Nasir al-Din Tusi can be considered one of the innovators of this theory. His innovation in psychology consists of the four-fold classification of the faculties of the soul and designating justice as a virtue and as a function of the practical wisdom. However, his important contribution concerning the theory of moderation paved the way for presenting a new interpretation of the principle of moderation, adding the criterion of quality to it, and defining the concept of “malignity”. His other important innovation is determining three supreme genera of excess, neglect, and malignity for the vice, which, given the three faculties of the soul, will increase to nine in the number of supreme genera. It is worth mentioning that these novel contributions of Tusi greatly affected his succeeding philosophers. Manuscript profile
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  3 - 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
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  4 - Ibn Sina and the Problem of the Immortality of the Soul
  Ghasem  Purhassan
  Unlike the prevailing idea, Ibn Sina is neither a loyal advocate of Aristotle nor a mere commentator of his ideas. He is an independent, distinguished, and Muslim Iranian philosopher. In the light of the criticisms targeted at Greek philosophy and Aristotle’s ideas, Ibn More

  Unlike the prevailing idea, Ibn Sina is neither a loyal advocate of Aristotle nor a mere commentator of his ideas. He is an independent, distinguished, and Muslim Iranian philosopher. In the light of the criticisms targeted at Greek philosophy and Aristotle’s ideas, Ibn Sina intended to develop a new form of epistemology and lay the foundations of oriental philosophy. One of the controversial issues among thinkers is the problem of the soul and its trans-substantiality, immateriality, and immortality. Ibn Sina considers Aristotle’s ideas in this regard to be inadequate and contaminated with defects, mistakes, and confusion. Through criticizing Aristotle’s definition of the soul, Ibn Sina tries to introduce a novel approach to the problem of the soul, while rejecting the arguments of survival and finally devising a new theory concerning the immortality of the soul. The purpose of the present paper is to explore Aristotle’s ideas and Ibn Sina’s objections to them and also reveal the latter philosopher’s innovative ideas concerning the problem of the soul. The writer tries to demonstrate that Ibn Sina’s achievement regarding the issue of the soul and body is, in fact, a new solution to this problem. He also aims to show that it is a mistake to assume that Islamic philosophers still continue to follow Aristotle’s ideas. Ibn Sina must be considered as a pioneer in fundamental arguments on the subject of the soul and its immateriality. Manuscript profile
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  5 - 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
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  6 - A Critique of Innate Ideas in Descartes’ Philosophy Based on Sadrian Principles
  Maryam  Samadieh عبدالرزاق  حسامی فر
  20.1001.1.20089589.1400.12.1.1.7
  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
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  7 - 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
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  8 - Genealogy and Identity of the World of Suspended Ideas in Illuminationist Philosophy
  Seyyed Mohammadali  Dibaji
  20.1001.1.20089589.1400.12.1.3.9
  The theory of suspended ideas is one of Suhrawardī’s most important philosophical innovations. Several challenging queries have been ventured regarding this theory; for example, questions have been raised about the identity of this world in the hierarchy of the realms o More

  The theory of suspended ideas is one of Suhrawardī’s most important philosophical innovations. Several challenging queries have been ventured regarding this theory; for example, questions have been raised about the identity of this world in the hierarchy of the realms of being. This question, in its Illuminationist sense, has been posed as follows: Is the identity of this world of the type of light, darkness, or a combination of both of them? Another question asks whether this theory is related to the legacy of Islamic philosophy, wisdom, and kalām, and to which views it leads in its genealogical sense in the history of these three disciplines. The findings of the present study indicate that the discussions of the faculty of imagination in Fārābī’s philosophy, imagination and spherical souls in Ibn Sīnā’s philosophy, the belief in Purgatory in Islamic kalām, and the theory of allegory in gnosis are the philosophical and ideological legacies which have influenced the explanation of this theory. On the other hand, resorting to Suhrawardī’s principles and arguments to explain this theory and the identity of the world of Ideas indicates that the existents of the world possess collective modal ideas and both luminous and dark identities. Manuscript profile
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  9 - Middle Platonism: Introduction and Analysis of Religious and Philosophical Theorems
  Mahbobeh  Hadina
  20.1001.1.20089589.1400.12.2.8.6
  Middle Platonism is one of the most important philosophical-religious schools of the first century BC. While claiming to revive the original Platonic school, it is rooted in the fundamental epistemological and philosophical theorems of that time including the essence of More

  Middle Platonism is one of the most important philosophical-religious schools of the first century BC. While claiming to revive the original Platonic school, it is rooted in the fundamental epistemological and philosophical theorems of that time including the essence of the One, God as Creator, descent of the soul, rational knowledge, and salvation. A study of middle Platonists’ works reveals that the philosophical principles of this school are mainly based on a reinterpretation of certain religious-philosophical theorems of Platonic, Stoic, Pythagorean, and gnostic schools. In fact, a clear trace of the concern for explaining the problem of the oneness and transcendence of the essence of Almighty, the quality of the creation of the world, and the presence of evil therein can be witnesses in the works of the philosophers that advocate the mentioned schools. The fundamental principles of middle Platonism are basically religious, and this school is mainly concerned with such topics as the duality of the essence of divinity in two concepts, God as the Maker or Creator of the world, the duality of the spiritual and material origin of Man and the descent of the soul, cosmology and the material structure and fate of the world, eschatology with an emphasis on the theorem of Man’s salvation through rational knowledge, and finally the discussion of ethics and the definition of its practical frameworks for attaining rational perfection, which is necessary for salvation. The present paper aims to explain and provide a comparative analysis of the principles and quality of the formation of the philosophical theorems of Middle Platonism as a philosophical-religious school. Manuscript profile
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  10 - Death in the View of Abul-ḥassan ‘Āmirī (with a Focus on its Historical Place)
  Einullah  Khademi
  20.1001.1.20089589.1402.13.4.2.5
  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
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  11 - 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
  20.1001.1.20089589.1401.13.3.4.1
  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
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  12 - Aristotelean Roots of the Soul’s Corporeal Origination in Mullā Ṣadrā’s View
  Hamideh  Ansari Hassan Fathi Morteza  Shajari
  20.1001.1.20089589.1402.14.1.7.7
  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
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  13 - A Critique of the Theory of Transmigration and Shahrzūrī’s Demonstrative Arguments Based on Ibn Sīnā’s Principles
  Mahmud Saidiy
  20.1001.1.20089589.1402.14.2.5.7
  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
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  14 - Analysis of Proclus' reading of Aristotle's psychology based on the treatise on soul and theologia
  Hajar Nili Ahmadabadi Hossein Kalbasi Ashtar
  20.1001.1.20089589.1402.14.3.6.0
  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