An Existential Approach to the Issue of Life in Mulla Sadra's Philosophy

This article examines the issue  of life  in Mulla Sadra’s Philosophy. To provide a comprehensive and accurate explanation, the Mulla Sadra’s analysis of life should be addressed with respect to his framework of philosophy and his existential attitude to the universe. Life in Sadra's philosophy is coextensive with existence and, so,  runs through everything. Life has an analogical gradation in its nature which has different manifestations at different levels; e.g., the mundane world is the manifestation of being and life at its lowest level. In Mulla Sadra's existential attitude toward the universe, the world is a manifestation of God and a nessecary stage of existence stages. The important principles of transcendental philosophy, such as the graded unity of existence and the intensified substantial motion, play an important role in explaining the nature of life in Mulla Sadra's view. This article explains the issue of life in the framework of two theories: “graded unity of being” and “pantheism” in Sadra's philosophy.