Time without the Passage in Mulla Sadra's Philosophy

A theory based on which time, but not the passage of time, is a reality is called “time without the passage” theory. The Passage of time, in a sense, is arisen from a series of events wherein an event is ordered relative to the “present”. This paper is aimed to evaluate the Sadra’s view on the passage of time. In this way, it is shown that he, from one hand, considers time as a chain of objective events wherein an event is ordered relative to the other events not relative to the present; on the other hand, he assumes temporal parts for objects based on which the existential differentiation between past, present, and future destinations is eliminated. Both of these are only compatible with the time without the passage theory not with its rival theory (the theory that both time and the passage of time are real). Therefore, it could be said that Sadra has tended towards the time without the passage theory. This could shed more light on the ontological necessaries of some Sadra’s philosophy concepts like “substantial motion” and “motion in the sense of cutting”.