Principality of existence from an issue to a foundation

Different expositions which have been presented on Mulla Sadra’s “principality of existence” have generally neglected the origin and historical process of development of this view from an issue-based perspective. This article determines the point of emergence of principality of existence in the history of Islamic philosophy, and explains what steps Mulla Sadra passed to enrich it. Historical review of this theory shows that what is discussed as Mulla Sadra’s (also known as Sadr-ol-Moto’allehin) major ontological basis has at first been merely some issues which “Avicenna”, “Shahab Al-Din Suhrawardi” and “Mir Damad” had faced in different ways. But Mulla Sadra’s issue-based attitude toward these discussions, who reached “maturity” by going through six steps, has transformed his view from mere answers to a few questions into a fundamental basis in his philosophical system, a basis which is considered as the foundation of many of his philosophical innovations. The present research aimed at giving a more precise representation of “principality of existence” view and was conducted using descriptive-analytical method. The innovative aspect of this article is to adopt a different approach in exploring and presenting principality of existence.