mohammad anbarsooz

Baruch Spinoza, the rationalist philosopher of the seventeenth century, devoted special attention to knowledge and epistemology. In his philosophy, knowledge has types and classes, the most valid of which is intuitive knowledge, and from this point of view, he focused on intuition, its objects, and its features. This paper, studying the types of cognition in Spinoza’s thought, attempts to explain its meaning and the object. Furthermore, the article, based on two sorts of interpretations, shows that, in the development of Spinoza’s philosophy, the object of intuition changes. This variation is caused by passing Spinoza’s thought from the division of knowledge, based on the form in the TRE, to that division, based on content in Ethics and there are serious debates among interpreters about that. In both works, Spinoza’s intuition is inferential, immediate, and irregular. Although, in TRE, its object is attribute and mode, while in Ethics, it is only mode or the essence of a particular thing. Finally, we show that the realization of intuitive knowledge guarantees credible and efficient knowledge and leads to liberty and happiness as the main purpose of Spinoza's philosophy.

Friedrich Nietzsche, one of the most influential philosophers in the field of ethics, in his criticism of elder ethical systems, undercuts the philosopher’s ethics and considers it inefficient. This essay, taking Nietzsche’s criticism as its canon, scrutinizes his critiquess of Kant’s Categorical Imperative and clarifies that most of his reproves of Christian morality and philosophical ethics is, in fact, a reaction against the Categorical Imperative and the generalization latent in it. The essay at hand studies notions like Will, Reason, and Instinct before arriving at the conclusion that, the extreme contrast in ethics and opposition is due to two different perspectives adopted towards the human being and his will. Finally, we will find out that the canon of ethics is the Categorical Imperative and general maxim for Kant while Nietzsche, by reevaluating the values, introduces a moral criterion that recommends we seek the morality of any action in its conformity with the will to power. At the end of the article, we will show that Nietzsche’s attack on the philosopher’s morality, is concerned with Kant’s Categorical Imperative more than every other moral system. Regarding this interpretation, we show that Nietzsche’s reaction to Kant’s Categorical Imperative does not mean that Kant’s Ethics can be denied. These approaches are formed in separate discourses and we can just interpret them as continuous steps of progress in the history of Ethics. Nietzsche’s approach to morality can’t be considered without Kant’s account of the Categorical Imperative.

When studying Henri Bergson's works, one can understand that as he proceeds from theoretical philosophy to applied philosophy, he criticizes deterministic view in favor of freedom and establishes foundations of this attitude. He is of the view that by obtaining true knowledge, we would achieve practical purposes including dynamic religion, open society and, more importantly, freedom. Bergson establishes his epistemological and metaphysical foundations in a way that he provides an appropriate base for the realization of freedom in open society. This study attempts to interpret Bergson's idea about freedom in light of his dualistic system, and by referring to the place of freedom within the dualistic system, it also attempts to explain Bergson's conception of freedom and show how and why freedom would be realized. Furthermore, this paper seeks to show that freedom would be realized by disregarding the wrong parts of Bergson's dualism in relation to dynamic religion, with the help of intuitive knowledge which takes duration into account and in an open society, while closed society, static religion and the epistemological attitude which rely on intelligence and have a spatial approach to time would hinder the occurrence of freedom. Thus the cognitive basis of conceiving free will is considered in the light of a dualistic approach in which the positive side (life) realizes the freedom, while the negative side (matter) causes determinism.

Plato and Plotinus, both as the two of the most influential philosophers of the classical period, had a special attention to intuition. Given the different approaches to the different philosophical issues that they have, it requires us to doubt on their unique visions upon intuition. The exact matter of the present paper is to consider what it means “intuition” to each of these two philosophers? By what method to be achieved? What are its characteristics and what things belong to?The response to the question, which will be clear in the end, is that the intuition for both of them is an immediate manifestation that is happening to human intellect; though both Plato and Plotinus, in order to achieve intellectual intuition,recommend activities to the Seekers which are primarily of two types of intellectual practice and self-purification activities.Also at the end we will be led to the conclusion that, regardless of significant differences between the two philosophers on the philosophical line and the way they interpret the issues, they both apply the intuition in a single meaning that can be achieved with respect to both theory and practice.

Plato and Plotinus, both as the two of the most influential philosophers of the classical period, had special attention to intuition. Given the different approaches to the different philosophical issues that they have, it requires us to doubt their unique visions upon intuition. The exact matter of the present paper is to consider what it means “intuition” to each of these two philosophers? By what method to be achieved? What are its characteristics and what things belong to? The response to the question, which will be clear in the end, is that the intuition for both of them is an immediate awareness that is happening to human intellect; though both Plato and Plotinus, in order to achieve intellectual intuition, recommend activities to the seekers which are primarily of two types of intellectual practice and self-purification activities. In addition, in the end, we will be led to the conclusion that, regardless of significant differences between the two philosophers on the philosophical line and the way they interpret the issues, they both apply the intuition in a single meaning that can be achieved with respect to both theoretical and practical aspects.

Nietzsche's philosophy may be regarded as the most all-inclusive and most ambiguous philosophy of history, of which different-and sometimes contradictory-understandings and interpretations are made. No doubt, however, ethics is the most important field on which Nietzsche has exerted influence. The consequence of his teachings in this field is the change of past generation's moral standards. Nietzsche claims that he intended a new type of ethics and calls it the ethics special for superhuman. The present paper tries to study Nietzsche's moral views based on the most coherent and justified interpretation and evaluate the criticisms directed against this interpretation and the scale of their correctness and incorrectness.