فصلنامه پژوهش های فلسفی - کلامی
سال چهارم شماره 1 (پیاپی 14، پاییز و زمستان 1381)

This paper is first going to consider Nietzsche´ s views on ethics. It then goes on to saythat the contemporary philosopher, A. C. MacIntyer, draw only two contrast ing alternatives in ethics, i.e. Aristotle´ s and Nietzsche´ s. The failure of the Enlightenment gave rise to such an exclusiveness. Thus, in order to show the priority of Ar istotle´ s ethics, we ought to demonstrate that Nietzshe´ s genealogical ethics is incorrect. We have shown that Nietzshe´ s ethics does not have a well-grounded principle. Although Nietzshe hold that all the philosophers of the Enlightenment are were wrong and laughs at them, in the long run, it becomes clear that Nietzshe himself is one of the subsequent figures of such thought that represents merely a different appearance of the same Western individualist ic and liberalist ic ethics.

Research on the relat ions among various disciplines may be of much use, and therelat ions between epistemology and ethics, in part icular, invite study. In this art icle, theauthor has tr ied to make possible the ideal of a nuificat ion of the sciences through thecomparative study of epistemology and ethics.

In what follows, we have considered Aristotle´ s view in his Nicomachean Ethics. The central concept of Aristote´ s ethical view is happiness and prosperity. In his research on ethics, Aristotle is looking for the highest good. A happy man, according to Aristotle, is a man of virtue. Ar istotle´ s analysis on virtues has had such a long-term influence on ethics that his theory has been revived under the so-called virtue ethics on our t ime.

In Contrast with just ice as a social act, individual just ice as virtue of the soul and as the highest virtue in ethics is considered in this essay. Individual just ice is prior to social just ice for society is made up of individuals and if individuals are civilized and educated, the society will naturally by civilized and educated and can, therefore, have some sound polit ical structure. Such a discussion belongs to virtue ethics that embraces the essent ial virtues and that deals with the moral characters on account of innate peculiarit ies of the moral agents. As a virtue, individual just ice can guide people in the course of their lives. In her paper, the author has surveyed and compared the ideas of Plato, Ar istotle, and those ofMuslim scholars such as, Khwajah Nsir al-Din al-Tusi, Ibn Miskawayh, and the late Naraqi.

In this paper, the author surveys Kant´ s view on the relat ion between religion and ethics. Kant holds that pract ical reason can, according to its own criteria, determine whether human acts are good or bad. Kant divided the imperat ives of pract ical reason into condit ional and categorical ones. Categorical imperat ives, the only ethical imperat ives, can be discerned through th formulation of general rules, the general law of mature, that humankind id an end in itself, the autonomy of the will, and the kingdom of ends. The formulat ion of the autonomy of the will is of much worth and value concerning the relat ion of religion to ethics. This formulation says to act as if the will can be considered as the legislator of the general law by means of its command. Thus according to Kant, any law established not by human will would not be ethical. Kant, therefore, considers ethics as independent of religion and God´s Commandments to be incongruous with the autonomy of human will. Kant, nonetheless, establishes the existence ofGod and the immortality of the soul by mean of ethical reasoning. Thus ethics leads to religion, In what follows, the author intends to crit icize Kant´ s views in this regard.

One of the main approaches to knowledge and just ificat ion in modern epistemology is the externalist approach in which we may emphasize on the appropriately causal circumstances in the process of producing knowledge and just ified belief. As a group from among the externalists, reliabilists hold that any belief can be just ifiable if it hasoriginated from reliable resources; it could be just ifiable even though the believer were unaware of how it might be just ified or were unable to express his just ificat ion. Alvin Goldman´s points of view can be taken as a start ing point for such an approach. In what follows, Surveying three of his art icles, we have pursued Goldman´s course of thought towards reliabilism.

Illuminat ion philosophy has been one of the intellectual movements in Iran.Shahab al-Din Suhrawardi, the founder of this school, t ied the ancient thought ofpersia to Islam. Suhrawardi considers the harmony with the cosmos of much necessityfor man and his society, for he believes nuder such a harmony man´s character can beilluminated. like the ancient Persians, Suhrawardi construes existence as light. The ideaof light has a relat ion with "Khoraa" (radiat ion) on the one hand, and with the verses ofNur (one of the suras of the Holy Qur´ an) on the other hand. "Khorra" is a radiatonby which the mind and body become illuminated. In his Hayakil al-nur (the Figures ofLight), Suhrawardi speakes of the iedal when such an imprisoned light is set free. Healso holds that as the basis of the cosmos "Love" is spreading and flowing throughoutas whole phenomena of the world. Henry Corbin considers the Illuminat ion philosophyas the passage from "the heroic epic period" of ancient Persia to "the myst ical epic" ofIran in the Islamic period.

In this art icle, we have considered the "mind and body relat ion in Islamic philosophy" according to Ibn Sina´ s Peripatet ic philsophy and Suhrawardi´ s Illuminat ion philosophy. The quest ion of the relat ion of immaterial mind and material body has been one of the most significant issues dealt with by many philosophers. Viewing the fact that such a relat ion in its anthropological aspect when compared with cosmology has been less dealt with, the author intends to study comparat ively this issue in Ibn Sina´ s school as a Peripatet ic philosophy and in Suhrawardi´ s school as an Illuminat ion philosophy.First. the human mind is introduced and authenticated according to bothphilosophers, then we have dealt with the bilateral interact ions of mind and body, andin the end, we have set forth the priority of mind over the body (that mind is the firstand original but the body is secondary and subordinate to the mind).

The idea of natural or innate law and the belief in some rules above posit ive law havebeen of the most controversial issues dat ing from a few centuries before Christ. This theory has come across some crit icisms and object ions four of which are considered here by the author; these are:1. The disagreement on the meaning of just ice.2. The diversity of positive law and rights in different societ ies.3. That the historical facts don not conform with natural law.4. That laws are impressed by arbitrary and private judgments.

The propensit ies toward religion and rat ionalism have been two significant issues in human history. Some have cast religion in the name of rat ionality, while others have abandoned rat ionality in the name of religion. In this paper, it is argued that rat ionality has a religious foundat ion and that therefore the two may be coherently brought together.