Sensory Perception as Knowledge by Presence

Peripatetic Philosophers believe that sensory perception is the result of the imprint of external objects in sense organs. Regarding vision, two views have been put forward: a) the flow of light, and b) the imprint of a visual image in the eye. Suhrawardi repudiates the idea of the flow of light, as he rejects the theory of imprint arguing that major cannot be imprinted in minor. Hence, he believes that it is through knowledge by presence that external objects can be seen. Rejecting Suhrawardi’s view, uadr al-Muta’allihīn suggests that in all types of sense perceptions, an object is perceived when the soul (nafs) creates its sensual image in the associated world of forms, that is, the object of visual perception is itself a material being. However, one can claim that on the basis of the principles of transcendental philosophy, sense perception should be considered as a type of knowledge by presence, and the immateriality of the object of knowledge—because of the immateriality of knowledge and its subject—does not contradict its being material, because the division of beings into material and immaterial, as its division into objective and subjective, is a relational division.