Rankings of Virtue and Ethics from the Viewpoint of Allameh Tabatabaee

Ethics is the discipline which studies values and revolutionizes human life so that man can lead his life enjoying virtue. Ethics has an intermediary role between theology and jurisprudence. It connects these two disciplines together so that the social behaviors are the manifestations of man’s morals and beliefs and the temperaments of each individual are the representations of his beliefs and ideals. Allameh Tabatabaee believes that ethics has different rankings: conventional ethics، rational ethics، and gnostic ethics. The conventional ethics is based on social intellect. Rational ethics relies on demonstrative intellect and gnostic ethics depends on intuition. The ethical life of each individual begins with conventional ethics and can find promotion into rational and gnostic ethics. These three rankings of ethics are different degrees of a single reality and can be joined together and they carry outward and inward considerations with respect to each other.