A Study of the Quality of Abstraction of Philosophical Concepts Based on the Principles of the Transcendent Philosophy

The common view is that philosophical concepts, such as existence, unity, causality, and necessity, have no objective existence and, even if they have, Man is not capable of perceiving them. This is because Man’s encounter with the world of sensibles is through the senses, which can only perceive sensible qualities of objects and are not even capable of perceiving all accidents. Based on these two points, the abstraction of philosophical concepts from external sensible realities seems to be totally impossible. Following a descriptive-analytic method and based on some of the principles of the Transcendent Philosophy, including the subsistence and affirmation of philosophical concepts in the outside and the quality of the existence of the soul and the quality of perceiving it, this study is intended to demonstrate that philosophical concepts are attained directly and without any intermediary from the heart of sensory perceptions. Although this theory does not exist in Mullā Ṣadrā’s works, his philosophical principles fittingly provide the context for such an explanation.