A Comparative Attitude towards the Anthropological Foundations of Education in Heidegger’s and Mullah Sadra’s Views

Human education’ enjoys a series of anthropological foundations that show the link between education and the discussions on philosophical psychology, and have always been considered by the thinkers in the sphere of education in the one hand, and the researchers in the sphere of anthropology on the other hand. Here, the views presented by Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), the famous and influential philosopher of the twentieth century in the sphere of the western philosophy, and Mulla Sadra (d. 1045 AH), the founder of transcendental philosophy in the sphere of Islamic philosophy, enjoy a special status. In the present study, it is clarified that, on the one hand, the starting point of anthropological discussions in both of those philosophers’ thoughts is the series of ontological discussions; and on the other hand, both thinkers have an existential attitude towards critique of the famous definition of the man as the ‘thinking animal’. The thoughts of those philosophers, while having common points, have differences which are dealt with in the present study.