فصلنامه تاریخ فلسفه
سال هفتم شماره 1 (پیاپی 25، تابستان 1395)

The theory of the principiality of existence or quiddity lacks a systematic model in pre-Sadrian thoughts; however, it is based on certain presuppositions the discovery of which can illuminate Muslim thinkers’ approach to this problem. Khwajah Nasir al-Din Tusi has explained his epistemological ideas regarding these presuppositions. This paper deals with some of the presuppositions underlying the principiality of existence or quiddity as presented by Tusi. Some of them are as follows: 1) the problem of the addition of existence and quiddity and its quality; 2) detecting the relationship between existence and quiddity; 3) the mind or the outside as the place of the realization of this relationship, and 4) evaluating the referents of the mentioned analysis and the realization of quiddity and existence in the outside or emphasizing the exclusive realization of one of them. Through his analyses of each of these presuppositions, Tusi adopts an approach which can represent his agreement or disagreement with the principiality of existence. Accordingly, although the theory of the principiality of existence did not occupy his mind as a problem, his epistemological presuppositions regarding existence and quiddity are consistent with it. The development of the relationship between the ideas of Tusi and Mulla Sadra can be analyzed through explaining the former’s standpoints regarding the above-mentioned presuppositions and his influence over Mulla Sadra.

In his treatise of Plato’s Doctrine of Truth, by referring to Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, Heidegger intends to demonstrate that the meaning of truth in Platonic philosophy underwent some transformation comparing to how pre-Socratic Greeks defined it. Here, truth as unhiddenness is reduced to truth as “true” and “correspondence”. The purpose of the present paper is to explain that Heidegger’s interpretation of Platonic truth does not cover all of Plato’s ideas regarding the meaning of truth. Accordingly, by referring to some of Plato’s ideas regarding, for example, “good”, “beauty”, “existence”, and “truth”, the writers have tried to disclose some of the contradictory points of Heidegger’s interpretation of the meaning of truth in Plato’s philosophy. They have also tried to demonstrate that Heidegger’s reading of Plato is reductionist in nature, and that downgrading the meaning of truth merely to the level of “true” and “correspondence”, more than being based on Plato’s documented ideas, originates in Heidegger’s will to call the whole history of Western philosophy as Western metaphysics.

Given the Multi-cultural nature of the development of philosophical systems, it can be claimed that Baruch Benedict de Spinoza formulated his view of the problem of the possibility or impossibility of concurrence of philosophy and religion in line with the tradition of Latin and Jewish Averroists. A major part of his Theologico-Political Treatise is devoted to responding to this problem. Spinoza’s philosophical thoughts were influenced by several philosophical and political traditions. Inspired by the naturalist philosophers of the Renaissance period, he advocated the radical republican tradition and played a significant role in developing the radical Enlightenment heritage. In unity with such trends and while being influenced by the Protestant religious reforms tradition and having a Jewish educational background, Spinoza was continually occupied with the important problem of the possibility or impossibility of reconciling theology and philosophy or religion and rationality. This radical philosopher of the Enlightenment Period encountered holy texts in the light of the Islamic and Jewish legacies of rational thoughts. In order to provide an answer to this problem, he openly dealt with the rationalist and textualist trends of Judaism. Given the huge contribution of Islamic rational thoughts to the rise of the Middle Age Jewish philosophy, his thoughts also dragged him to the domain of Islamic rational philosophy. In comparison to Muslim and Jewish textualists and rationalists of the Middle Ages, he chose the middle way and defended the reasons for his choice in the theological parts of his Theologico- Political Treatise: he argued that neither is philosophy at the service of religion, nor is religion at the service of philosophy. Based on this Spinozist idea, two hypotheses can be postulated: 1) the impossibility of the unity of philosophy and religion in Theologico-Political Treatise does not necessarily indicate providing some secular principles for the public domain; 2) following the historical hermeneutic approach to holy texts, this treatise provides a fideist theory which frees the vast field of living in the modern world from meaningless sterility and coldness.

Pierre Hadot (1922-2010), the contemporary French philosopher showed the dynamism and true life of philosophy in philosophers’ everyday life through presenting a philosophical model, called Philosophy as a Way of Life, which is the product of his several years of research in the field of ancient philosophy. In this paper, the writers have tried to analyze and interpret Suhrawardi’s Illuminationist philosophy based on this model. Accordingly, in the first part, in addition to introducing the mentioned model, they explain its important elements such as the philosophical language of spiritual practice and its place in studying philosophical schools pursuing spiritual guidance. The second part provides an analysis and interpretation of the Illuminationist philosophy in the framework of this model. Therefore, it initially propounds the basic principles of Suhrawardi’s school regarding light, the hierarchy of lights, the soul and its significance, the world of Ideas and its necessity, epistemology, and ontology. Discussing the fundamental principles of Illuminationist philosophy helps to specify the way of life and its elements and features in this school in relation to the philosophical model of “Philosophy as a Way of Life”. Since Suhrawardi’s Illuminationist philosophy bears a tight unity with gnosis and spiritual wayfaring, it is difficult to perceive it philosophically and to demonstrate its structural coherence in explaining various philosophical problems. Through presenting certain strategies, Hadot’s model enables researchers to develop a coherent and comprehensive perception of the problems propounded in this philosophical-gnostic school and the way of life it advocates.

At the beginning of the 20th century a vast trend which was unanimously called “the crisis of European science and culture” by its advocates emerged in Europe. Following the same trend, Husserl, one of the distinguished European thinkers of the early 20th century, introduced phenomenology as a solution to overcome this full-scale crisis, which, in his view, dominated Europe during the second half of the 19th century. He maintained that this crisis manifested itself in the form of absence of unity and coherence in philosophy and sciences (both natural and human sciences), as well as in the alienation of sciences from people’s everyday life. Husserl argued that the roots and causes of this crisis must be sought in the scientific and philosophical approaches of the 19th century Europe. During this period and after the demise of Hegel, certain schools such as Marxism, biologism, and historical hermeneutics appeared under the influence of Hegelian schools and the idea of historical relativism that they advocated. A common feature of all of them was their interest in relativism. Each of these schools, through negating the possibility of achieving a single and certain truth and also relativising it based on its own principles provided the context for the development of the above-mentioned crisis. After disclosing the nature of crisis in the philosophical principles of the West and through presenting a critical interpretation of Cartesian fundamentalism. Husserl suggested a method called “phenomenological interpretation” in order to have access to a solid and unifying basis for sciences. In spite of the several criticisms targeting this method, it has turned into one of the most fundamental phenomenological elements which has influenced a11 the philosophical schools which were developed after this prominent philosopher.

One of the issues which has united the ontological, epistemological, and anthropological dimensions of philosophical thought in the course of history and has continually affected and determined the related social and political directions and general trends is “order”. In other words, order enjoys three ontological, epistemological, and anthropological aspects with respect to political life in society and can function as the basis for the interpretation and formation of the history of philosophy. In Greek philosophy, order is one of the philosophical principles which, due to its influence over different schools of philosophy and philosophers during the whole history of philosophical thought, enjoys an important and unique role and status. The issue of order in Platonic philosophy proved to be a turning point in this regard. Accordingly, in this paper it has been tried to explore the philosophical concept of order from its epistemological, ontological, and anthropological aspects in the history of Greek philosophy ,in general, and in Platonic philosophy, in particular. The writers have also aimed to demonstrate its influence and directive role in Plato’s political philosophy. Therefore, following an analytic-descriptive method, they firstly cast a historical glance at the concept of order in the works of pre-Platonic thinkers. Then they investigate his general philosophy and, particularly, his political philosophy with respect to the above-mentioned dimensions while emphasizing his desirable political and educational systems based on his idea of order. Their findings indicate that a philosophical thought based on order might begin with a mythological and naturalist view; nevertheless, with the later development of human thought, it shifts its attention to a kind of order with mathematical, cosmological, and metaphysical tendencies. Following this process, the Platonic natural and mathematical view of order unites with a divine and virtuous view of order. Consequently, as both the context and basis of other virtues and also as the ultimate goal of philosophy, it develops a political-social form in connection with law.

The main slogan of Stoic philosophy is “Life in Harmony with Nature”, which also signifies the unity between physics and ethics in stoics’ ideas. The study of the roots of this slogan in the view of Stoic philosophers; from Zeno of Cilium, the founder of Stoic philosophy to Marcus, Aurelius, the last Stoic philosophers, indicates the expansion of the semantic domain of “Life in Harmony with Nature”, as follows: 1) individual nature in the sense of harmony with the rational faculty; 2) general nature in the sense of harmony with fate and those affairs which are beyond our control, and 3) social nature in the sense of harmony with society and social laws. Interestingly enough, in Stoic ethics there are some terms for each of these semantic domains in relation to natural sciences; for example, self-preservation, kindness, common sense, and providence in the world. This paper mainly focuses on the problem of functions of “Life in Harmony with Nature” in Stoic ethics based on the ideas of Seneca, Epictetus, and Aurelius as recorded in their existing works. Finally, it concludes that Stoic philosophers, particularly the three mentioned above, mainly emphasize the Stoic concept of “Life in Harmony with Nature” in order to create a unity between Man’s inner order and the general order of nature and society. This is because, in this school of philosophy, Man is a part of the whole and must use this relationship in order to attain happiness and harmony between themselves, society, and the whole.

Heraclitus is usually recognized as a philosopher who believes in the motion and becoming of all things. He also maintains that there is a kind of conflict among opposites, which finally leads to their unity. However, not much attention is paid to the fixed principles that exist in his philosophy. The most important of all of them is logos, which is also referred to by some other terms such as fire, God (theos), etc. Logos is a fixed divine principle which establishes harmony among all things, and a philosopher is an individual who hears the words of logos and acts accordingly. Therefore, it can be said that, in addition to the becoming of worldly things, Heraclitus also speaks of unity and consistency in his philosophy.