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Open Access Article

1 - Substance in Modern Empiricism
Alireza Javanmardi Adib Mohammad Akvan

The epistemological approach to Empiricism in the Modern era is opposed to the rationalist approach of Descartes and his followers, who believed in the existence of certain innate ideas prior to experience in Man’s mind. The thinkers advocating this approach explored ra More

The epistemological approach to Empiricism in the Modern era is opposed to the rationalist approach of Descartes and his followers, who believed in the existence of certain innate ideas prior to experience in Man’s mind. The thinkers advocating this approach explored rationalists’ metaphysical problems through denying innate ideas and considering sense experience as the source of knowledge. The results of such investigations had nothing to say, even at their peak, about substance except when trying to deny it. Accordingly, given the process of the development of empiricism by the pioneers of this approach and its consequences, the authors of this paper have tried to deal with the following basic question: After accepting the specific reading of some empiricists such as Locke, Berkeley, and Hume from the process of attaining knowledge, would it be possible to accept the existence of substance? Here, the writers respond that, based on their studies of the above thinkers’ views of substance, the acceptance of substance is not consistent with empiricism. This is because substance is a meta-empirical entity which sense experience cannot grasp. What follows sense experience in the end is nothing but a collection of impressions which can never explain the existence of substance. Manuscript profile

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2 - 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

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3 - Factors Influencing Hakim Zonouzi’s View of Corporeal Resurrection
Mohammad Mahdi Meshkati Ali Mostajeran Gortanee

The philosophical explanation of corporeal resurrection is one of the most important philosophical problems which has attracted the attention of researchers during the post-Sadra era. Given the existing ambiguities and questions in this respect, the legacy of earlier ph More

The philosophical explanation of corporeal resurrection is one of the most important philosophical problems which has attracted the attention of researchers during the post-Sadra era. Given the existing ambiguities and questions in this respect, the legacy of earlier philosophers, particularly Mulla Sadra, in relation to this problem, and the principles of the Transcendent Philosophy, such as the trans-substantial motion and the gradedness of existence, Hakim Agha Ali Modarres Zonouzi has carefully investigated the issue of corporeal resurrection and provided a new analysis in this regard. His view is based on three premises: firstly, after death, the soul leaves certain soulish effects and forms in trust with the cells and elements of the body. Secondly, such effects result in the trans-substantial motion and the change and evolution of the body. Thirdly, after the perfection of the body in the light of its trans-substantial motion, it joins its own specific soul so that no other soul would be appropriate enough to unite with it. Hakim Zonouzi managed to demonstrate his new explanation for corporeal resurrection relying on certain philosophical principles and analytic studies of authentic hadith sources. The present paper investigates some of Hakim Zonouzi’s philosophical principles such as the union of the body and the soul, the true and unitary texture of the form, and the quality of its subsistence in two states. Finally, it elaborates on consolidating Hakim Zonouzi’s specific theory based on a tradition from Imam Sadiq (a). Manuscript profile

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4 - Historical Development of the Concept of Hyle (Matter) in the Works of Muslim Thinkers
Mahmoud Hedayatafza Mohammad Javad Rezaeirah

As generally acknowledged, the term “hyle” in Peripatetic philosophy has been derived from Aristotle’s views on matter and form or potency and act. Although this term has been defined as “matter lacking actuality and enjoying pure potency” in Islamic philosophy, a study More

As generally acknowledged, the term “hyle” in Peripatetic philosophy has been derived from Aristotle’s views on matter and form or potency and act. Although this term has been defined as “matter lacking actuality and enjoying pure potency” in Islamic philosophy, a study of the works of Muslim thinkers reveals that, because of the integration of some philosophical views with gnostic ideas as well as the influence of Islamic teachings, this term has undergone different semantic changes. As a result, in some schools of philosophy, it has been consciously employed to refer to actual affairs. Below, the writers have provided eight meanings for “hyle”, which are listed in their chronological order of formulation: 1. Matter lacking any kind of actuality and enjoying pure potency, as accepted by Peripatetic philosophers and equivalent to its Aristotelian concept. 2. The fourth level of being, for the Isma‘ilite, which is posterior to the soul and prior to nature. 3. Pure substantial continuity, in some of Suhrawardi’s works, which, along with accidental quantity, constitutes the truth of body. 4. Matter inclusive of all possible worlds and an otherworldly expression of simple existence in the view of some gnostics. 5. One of the modes of form in line with Mulla Sadra’s view of the unitary integration of matter and form. 6. An equivalent to possible existence or created thing’s divine aspect (Face of God) in the view of Shaykh Ihsa’ei. 7. An expansion of the Aristotelian concept of prime hyle under the title of the dark nature of essence in Tafkik (separation) School. 8. An application of the matter of world to the element of water based on the religious texts of Tafkik School of thought. 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 - Khalil Khan Thaqafi (A‘alam al-Dawlah): A Philosophical Translation concerning Time and Place
Reza Ranjbar

After graduation from Dar al-Funun and before going abroad, Dr. Khalil Khan Thaqafi translated and wrote two treatises on time and place. In the first treatise, which was introduced in the previous issue of History of Philosophy Journal, he discusses the idea of finite More

After graduation from Dar al-Funun and before going abroad, Dr. Khalil Khan Thaqafi translated and wrote two treatises on time and place. In the first treatise, which was introduced in the previous issue of History of Philosophy Journal, he discusses the idea of finite and infinite time and place. The second treatise, which is introduced in this issue, includes the translation of a short part of a huge philosophical book by Victor Cousin, the French philosopher of the 19th century, discussing whether time and place are substance or not. Manuscript profile

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7 - Time and Place in the View of Mirza Khalil Khan Thaqafi (A‘lam al-awlah): Two Hand-Written Treatises
Reza Ranjbar

Doctor Khalil Khan Thaqafi (A‘lam al-Dawlah), a physician, writer, and translator of the Qajar period and one of the first graduates of modern medicine in Iran, translated and wrote two treatises about time and place after he graduated from Dar al-Funun and before he we More

Doctor Khalil Khan Thaqafi (A‘lam al-Dawlah), a physician, writer, and translator of the Qajar period and one of the first graduates of modern medicine in Iran, translated and wrote two treatises about time and place after he graduated from Dar al-Funun and before he went abroad. In the treatise that he wrote himself, Mirza Khalil Khan discusses the quality of the development of the idea of space, the distinction between the idea of environmental space and infinite space, the quality of the formation of the idea of infinite space, the idea of space as substance, the infinity of space with respect to its breadth and continuity, the development of the idea of time, and the idea of time as a predicate of space. In this treatise, he briefly explains and criticizes the ideas of such philosophers as Victor Cousin, Stewart Mill, and Spinoza. In the second treatise, which is a translation, he discusses whether time and place are substance or not. Manuscript profile

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8 - Sinian Transcendent Philosophy: Ibn Sīnā’s Move from Peripatetic Philosophy to Transcendent Philosophy
Mostafa Momeni

Although Ibn Sīnā has been frequently introduced as a Peripatetic philosopher and the “Master of Peripatetic Philosophers” in the world of Islam, one might wonder if such a reading of his philosophy is absolutely correct. Undoubtedly, his major works have been written o More

Although Ibn Sīnā has been frequently introduced as a Peripatetic philosopher and the “Master of Peripatetic Philosophers” in the world of Islam, one might wonder if such a reading of his philosophy is absolutely correct. Undoubtedly, his major works have been written on the basis of the principles of Peripatetic philosophy. However, the question is whether one can find some indications of his departure from this school of philosophy in the same works. Ibn Sīnā neither remained a Peripatetic philosopher nor followed Peripatetic thoughts to the end of his life. Through coining the term “Transcendent Philosophy” for his own school and inviting the seekers of truths to follow it in order to have an accurate grasp of what they sought for, Ibn Sīnā added a completely new dimension to his identity. Finally, the Transcendent Philosophy reached its peak of development in Sadrian thoughts. Here, the author intends to explain the “transcendence of Sinian philosophy” and, at the same time, trace the roots of the principles of the Transcendent Philosophy in Sinian philosophy and highlight them in his works and words. Although the political occupations of Ibn Sīnā and his short life did not allow him to provide a new synthesis of such principles, he managed to pave the way for the creation of the Transcendent Philosophy by his successors. Manuscript profile

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9 - On the Translation of Aristotle’s Ousia as Substance
Hamid Khosravani Hamidreza Mahboobi Arani Seyyed Mohammad Ali Hodjati

Aristotle’s discussion of the Ousia are diverse and confusing since there are various definition of the term especially in Metaphysics, Physics and Categories. He refers to it sometimes as the underlying layer, sometimes he means something similar to the meaning of bein More

Aristotle’s discussion of the Ousia are diverse and confusing since there are various definition of the term especially in Metaphysics, Physics and Categories. He refers to it sometimes as the underlying layer, sometimes he means something similar to the meaning of being, and sometimes as essence and quiddity. Hence, the difficulty and disagreement among the translators and interpreters on the best equivalent for Ousia in other languages. In the present paper, after a short historical discussion about Ousia, I examine some common equivalents for the Ousia in Latin and English and attempt to discuss the different reasons for and against each equivalent. My argument, in general, goes for the term Substance, and I will bring 8 reasons to establish the argument. Manuscript profile

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10 - A Study of Priority and Posteriority through Substantiality and its Historical Background in Islamic Philosophy
Saeed Anvari Khadijeh Hashemi Attar

Priority or posteriority through substantiality or quiddity is considered to be consistent with the theory of the principiality of quiddity, and its application in the system of the principiality of existence has been merely limited to the priority of genus and differen More

Priority or posteriority through substantiality or quiddity is considered to be consistent with the theory of the principiality of quiddity, and its application in the system of the principiality of existence has been merely limited to the priority of genus and differentia to species. Through explaining the meaning of substantiality and its difference from substance, this paper examines the former term in Islamic philosophy and clarifies its process of development and applications. This term was propounded for the first time in Suhrawardī’s works and, later, Mīr Dāmād distinguished the referents of this kind of priority from those of priority by essence and introduced it as one of the three types of essential priority. Priority through substantiality has several applications in the system of the principiality of quiddity, such as the priority of the causes of the rational consistency (genus and differentia) or external consistency (matter and form) of quiddity to quiddity, the priority of quiddity to its quiddative and ontological concomitants, and the priority of quiddity to existence. After Mullā Ṣadrā, because of the dominance of his theory of the principiality of existence, the referents of priority and posteriority by substantiality decreased and were limited to those which were in conformity with the system of the principiality of existence. In contrast, the other referents of this kind of priority have been considered to be among those of priority and posteriority by truth. Manuscript profile

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11 - Substance and Essence of Aristotle’s Ousia and its Translation into Substance and Reality
Hamid Khosravani Hamidreza Mahboobi Arani

Aristotle’s ousia suffered the same fate it had in the West when it arrived in ancient Iran and the world of Islam. Among all the existing appropriate equivalents, the term “substance” was chosen as its nearest equivalent in western philosophical texts. Similarly, the t More

Aristotle’s ousia suffered the same fate it had in the West when it arrived in ancient Iran and the world of Islam. Among all the existing appropriate equivalents, the term “substance” was chosen as its nearest equivalent in western philosophical texts. Similarly, the term “jawhar”, which is the Arabic for “gawhar” in Persian and a close equivalent for substance, was accepted by all philosophers in the world of Islam. In previous translated works before and after the translation movement in Baghdad’s Dar al-Tarjumah (Translation House), there were some words such as ayn, inniyyat, huwiyyat, and budish which implied almost the true meaning of ousia as intended by Aristotle. This was because this term has been derived from the verb to be and basically means existent, essence, or being; however, jawhar and substance were the ultimate choices of translators. The dominance of this substantialist view, both in the West and in the East, was partly because of the early translations of Aristotle’s works. This paper aims to, firstly, examine the fate of Aristotles’s ousia upon its arrival in Iran and the world of Islam and, then, discuss the relationships between the meanings of the chosen equivalents in the Islamic world with those of their western equivalents. Manuscript profile

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12 - A Study of Multiplicity of the Category of Substance in Khwājah Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī
Mahdi Dasht Bozorgi Mohammad Ismail Abdollahi Mohammad Karaminia

Khwājah Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī has sometimes provided two different views regarding a scientific problem, one following the method of the people of kalam and the other following the method of philosophers. At first sight, one might assume that Ṭūsī is making contradictory co More

Khwājah Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī has sometimes provided two different views regarding a scientific problem, one following the method of the people of kalam and the other following the method of philosophers. At first sight, one might assume that Ṭūsī is making contradictory comments; however, an analysis of his discussions reveal that such contradictions are only superficial and can be explained justifiably within the framework of his general system of philosophy. One of such contradictory cases pertains to the category of substance. In his works on logic, similar to Peripatetic philosophers, Ṭūsī considers substance to be a category or genus of genera; however, he deemed of substance as a secondary intelligible in his Tajrīd al-i‘tiqād. The present paper aims to clarify this view of the multiplicity of the category of substance. Then, in order to judge its legitimacy, the authors pose some possibilities and finally introduce one of the views which seems to be compatible with reality as their own standpoint. Through referring to Ṭūsī’s words and considering his social and academic position during his time, when philosophers were under huge attacks by mutikallimun, as well as given his moderate, truth-loving, and academic character, the authors demonstrate that this contradiction is superficial rather than real. Following the library method, this research was conducted based on a thorough study of Ṭūsī’s works. Nevertheless, the researchers also took the views of his commentators into consideration when necessary. Manuscript profile

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13 - Foundations of Denying the Trans-Substantial Motion in the Philosophy of Ḥakīm Mullā Rajab‘alī Tabrīzī
Zeinab Azad Moghaddam Abbas Javareshkian Seied Morteza Hoseini Shahrudi

Mullā Rajab‘alī Tabrīzī was one of the philosophers of Isfahan School of Philosophy and a contemporary of Mullā Ṣadrā. His thoughts, originated in a school which was almost in contrast to Sadrian philosophy, clearly show the strengths and weak points of Islamic philosop More

Mullā Rajab‘alī Tabrīzī was one of the philosophers of Isfahan School of Philosophy and a contemporary of Mullā Ṣadrā. His thoughts, originated in a school which was almost in contrast to Sadrian philosophy, clearly show the strengths and weak points of Islamic philosophy. The purpose of the present study was to examine the roots of Mullā Rajab‘alī Tabrīzī’s thoughts regarding the trans-substantial motion. Since he believed in the principiality of quiddity as opposed to the principiality of existence, he considered motion to be disconnected and of the type of generation and corruption and maintained that gradual and trans-substantial motion was impossible. In addition to the lack of a subsistent subject and the mortality of the species in the trans-substantial motion, the belief in certain philosophical principles has resulted in the rejection of the trans-substantial motion as a philosophical principle by some philosophers such as Mullā Rajab‘alī Tabrīzī. Manuscript profile

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14 - 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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15 - Labyrinth of the World: Deconstruction of Nicolaus Cusanus’ Perception of Substance Based on the Views of Meister Eckhart and Ibn Sīnā
Ebrahim Ranjbar Mohammadreza Asadi

20.1001.1.20089589.1402.14.2.6.8

Nicolaus Cusanus, the German Philosopher and theologian, tried to revise the metaphysical views of his time in his works. He tried to present his philosophical approach systematically by posing a number of innovative theories about creation, Man’s relationship with the More

Nicolaus Cusanus, the German Philosopher and theologian, tried to revise the metaphysical views of his time in his works. He tried to present his philosophical approach systematically by posing a number of innovative theories about creation, Man’s relationship with the infinite affair, motion, and knowledge, as well as by revising the common religious views regarding such theorems as the first sin and creation out of nothing. Here, the authors have initially tried to examine Cusanus’ important views about the relationship between Man and the infinite affair, and through which reveal that, from this point of view, there is only one substance in the world, and anything other than that is among its necessary accidents. Next, they propound the concepts of unfolding and folding and introduce a category called the trans-substantial motion in Cusanus’ specific reading. After discussing his views, the background of the formation of his approach are deconstructed. In doing so, Meister Eckhart’s interpretation of some sections of the Holy Book and some of Ibn Sīnā’s fundamental metaphysical views are presented. Then the authors argue that Ibn Sīnā’s innovative approaches and Meister Eckhart’s novel interpretations pave the context for postulating a new metaphysics that is different from the traditional one. This can introduce new perspectives for philosophical studies and shed a new light on the history of philosophical thought. Manuscript profile

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16 - Historical roots of the theory of substantial movement
Mansour Imanpour

20.1001.1.20089589.1402.14.3.4.8

Undoubtedly, the interpretation of the reality of the natural world is considered one of the basic topics of metaphysics and has always been discussed since the beginning of philosophy and mysticism. Based on the theory of essential movement, Mulla Sadra considered the More

Undoubtedly, the interpretation of the reality of the natural world is considered one of the basic topics of metaphysics and has always been discussed since the beginning of philosophy and mysticism. Based on the theory of essential movement, Mulla Sadra considered the whole world of nature to be equal to movement and becoming and believed that the whole world of nature moves towards the constant world. Now the question is whether this theory is a completely innovative theory or does it have a historical background? The answer of this article with a descriptive-analytical approach is that in ancient Greece, some philosophers believed in the movement of all creatures in the natural world. In the Islamic context, some philosophers believed in the movement in the realm of accidents and rejected the movement of substance with all kinds of disputes and arguments. Another group looked at the world from another point of view and considered the whole universe changeable with a mystical view and with the help of intuitive experiences. Mulla Sadra, using this background and prepared treasure, presented and revised the Essential movement in accordance with his existential philosophy, and by proving it and putting it as a basis for many philosophical issues, he made another plan and based on that, the existence in a macro view is divided into two the changeable and the constant parts. Manuscript profile

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