A Study of the Role of Sense and Reason in Mental Ideas and Judgements from the Point of View of Avicenna and Allameh Tabataba`i

The issue of the role of sense and reason in mental ideas and judgements is one of the most effective issues in the epistemological evaluation of scientific propositions, which many prominent philosophical schools and such philosophers as Ibn Sina and Allameh Tabataba'i have also paid attention to. The basic question may be taken as: What is the role of sense and reason in the emergence of mental ideas and judgements? The present article examines this issue in the opinions of the two philosophers discussed with an analytical and rational method. Ibn Sina and Allameh Tabatabai believe that in the field of mental ideas,  perceptions begin with sense. They consider sense as the receiver of particulars and intellect of universals and sense as both internal sense and external sense. of course, Allameh puts more emphasis on the knowledge by presence. Also, both of them believe that the intellect creates general concepts by using concepts derived from sense. Then, from them, it creates elementary self-evident judgements, which are prior to other judgementss. Therefore, in judgementss, both believe in the existence of intellectual judgements prior to sensory judgements and propositions, which are the criteria for the validity of perceptible sensations or sensory propositions and their related propositions. They consider sense to be the basis of the concept of the subject and predicate of these cases, and reason to be the maker of judgments, and by referring knowledge to basic axioms, they justify their validity and provide a solid basis for human knowledge. This is how they invalidate the exclusive reliance of all human knowledge on sense and sensory experience.