Abd al-Razzaq Lahiji on the Subjectivity of Individuality

Individuality, one of the important metaphysical issues among peripatetic, illuminational, transcendental philosophers, as well as Imamie and Ashari scholars, has also drawn the attention of Abd al-Razzaq Lahiji. The theological views of khaje, Eiji, Jorjani and Davani make Lahiji analyze and evaluate the views of peripatetic philosophers on this issue. Lahiji believes that individuality is subjective since it does not have an independent existence in the external world and is not but the very specific existence of the thing and its individual essence. Like the existence, Individuality is unified with the essence in the external world and is separated from it only in mental analysis, and in the mind, the essence is attributed to the existence. In this article, it is shown that there is no difference between Lahiji and Mulla Sadra views on the definition of the individuality, the manner of its being and what it depends on. Both of them maintain that individuality is the especial existence of the thing, the existence which is the same as its reality and its external existence.