hojjatollah marzani

In a Socratic legacy of belonging knowledge to the universals, Aristotle along with Plato has criticized the viewpoint of the sophists and skeptics. According to Aristotle’s ideas, not only it is possible to achieve certain knowledge, what is given in first philosophy through philosophical propositions are also have the feature of certainty. Criticizing the Plato’s views and establishing the formal logic and deductive method, Aristotle has a prominent and influential role in the history of philosophy, especially in connection with the rationalist philosophers. Aristotle has linked certain knowledge with recognition of cause. Accordingly, it appears that in accordance with his principles, the whole certain knowledge, at least in a part of the first philosophy, the realm of Insensible immortal substance, has faced with epistemological and logical difficulties.

An important branch of the principle of causality is the rule of the cognation of cause and effect. Discussing the issues of causality, philosophers have paid more attention to the principle of causality itself and causal and caused necessity and have paid less attention to this rule. Mulla Sadra has explored this issue more than his previous philosophers and has given new subjects on the base of his philosophical system. This historical and analytical paper has dealt with the nature, explanation and scope of the rule cognation of cause and effect in Islamic philosophy, especially in philosophy of Mulla Sadra and at the end, it has concluded that that the cognation of the cause and effect has two maximum and minimum meanings. The minimum meaning is explained on the base of the philosophical system of before transcendent philosophy but the maximum meaning is explained in regard to the special foundations of transcendent philosophy such as the principality of the existence and its gradation. This separation makes appear that many of the objections to the rule of cognation of the cause and effect in fact refer to the maximum meaning and the minimum meaning is accepted by most philosophers.