The Nature and Types of Pleasure in Sohrewardi's View

In his different books and treatises, Sohrewardi proposes different definitions for pleasure. These definitions differ with each other in terms of the quality and quantity of the qualifications used in them. He believes that there is strong relationship between pleasure and light. In some of his works, Sohrewardi divides pleasure into sensory (physical) and spiritual pleasures, and in some others into bodily and heavenly pleasures. He refers to eternal pleasure in other occasions. On the other hand, he divides pleasure into sensory and intellectual and the latter into external and internal, and believes that internal pleasures are superior to external ones, and intellectual pleasures are superior to sensory ones. He explains these aspects of superiority by using peripatetic and illuminative methods. He also believes that pleasure is not univocal but equivocal. The present paper investigates the nature and types of pleasure in Sohrewardi's view.