فصلنامه معرفت فلسفی
سال نوزدهم شماره 2 (پیاپی 74، زمستان 1400)

One of the most fundamental discussions of epistemology is the discussion pertaining to the conceptions and notions. In this article, we are seeking to investigate how we acquire concepts, whether specific or general. This is the main concern of this study. According to the selected view, the theoretical concepts are taken from the self-evident concepts, but all the self-evident concepts are taken from the intuitive knowledge. In the first part of this claim, i.e. taking the theoretical concepts from the self-evident ones, there is no considerable disagreement. The second part, however, is not so and many theories have been presented there. Nevertheless, after explaining the selected theory and stating the scope of the self-evident concepts, we face this fundamental question: "how are the self-evident concepts taken from the intuitive knowledge?" After acquiring the right solution for the fundamental issue of this article, we will investigate and evaluate the way of acquiring the self-evident concepts through the intuitive knowledge and, at the end, the most important difficulties facing it.

Alvin Goldman offered the theory of process reliablism as one of the criteria for justification in extroverted epistemology. This theory was basically offered in relation to psychology, cognitive sciences, and philosophy of mind. After the objections offered by Gautier on the theory of traditional epistemology, new theories entered the world of epistemology most of which in two groups: extroverted and introverted. The theory of process reliablism is one of the famous theories in extroverted epistemology and a subdivision of naturalistic approaches. The important point is that the naturalistic approaches (among which is the theory of process reliablism) are more apt to non-religious interpretations compared to other common approaches in epistemology. However, the question arises as follows: "is the reliablism theory in opposition to the normative, moral and religious issues and in opposition to behavioral theories like other naturalistic theories or it can be shown that – despite the common idea – the theories inside the naturalistic and extroverted framework are able to be reconciled with normative foundations?" This is a question dealt with in this article to be answered properly. In this article, we will see that among the various theories offered, Goldman attempts to explain normativity in a different way in his extroverted epistemology.

Hermeneutics as the science of the process of understanding the text has different branches. The most prominent among them is classic hermeneutics, philosophical hermeneutics, and modern hermeneutics. The philosophical hermeneutics, offered by well-known philosophers such as Friedrich, Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Paul Ricoeor, focuses on the nature of understanding instead of systematizing the method of understanding. Through this inquiry, it is clarified that the philosophical hermeneutics is formed on the basis of coalition of the horizons of author and interpreter, the effect of prejudgments on understating, the historicity of understanding, the hermeneutic cycle and infinity of the process of understanding. And these components are inconsistent with the components of understanding method in the principles of jurisprudence. On the other hand, the possibility of pure understanding of the text, plurality of understanding and desirability of subjective interpretation are among the necessities of philosophical hermeneutics, which are inconsistent with the components of understanding method in principles of jurisprudence.

Among the important discussions in transcendental philosophy is "the mode of relationship between the soul and the body" wherein Mulla Sadra has dealt with proving the 'sameness of the soul and the body' by his innovation in explaining the 'wanting possibility' and 'copulative nature of the effect' as well as his transcendental view in the 'rule of non-composite reality'. He has also answered, with the same attitude, one of the main questions in this regard, that is the mode of the relationship between God and human in the realm of actions and deeds. Based on Mulla Sadra's foundations, just as the human's faculties and body have no independent existence and are the effects of his soul, one can achieve the mode of human's agency for his actions (which is an effect and possible thing among the possibilities and absolute relation to God's existence, and its existence is a state of God's existence). One can get the important point that the human's agency is neither independent, nor has it even the mediatory role. It is only the modifier of the capacity of capable thing for the grace emanated from the absolute Grace, and the true agency just belongs to God. It is in the light of this view that the subsidiary questions in verses such as "and you did not shoot when you shot" (wa mā ramaita idh ramait)2 are answered.

Inquiry about immateriality and eternity of human's soul and the meaning of life is among the main concerns occupying the minds of thinkers since long ago. Belief in after-life, principality of the spirit, and the immateriality and eternity of human soul have basic and important role in meaningfulness or meaninglessness of the life. With his monotheistic view and based on elements of his philosophical system (such as how the human soul belongs to the body and the combination of those two, substantial motion, physical origination and spiritual survival of the soul), and by presenting a different explanation of death, Mulla Sadra offers an idea that confirms the link between the belief in immateriality and eternity of the soul and meaningfulness of life. The approach taken by Mulla Sadra for proving the immateriality and eternity of human soul is a philosophical approach with considerable manifestations in meaningfulness of life. Considering various aspects of immateriality and eternity of human soul and meaningfulness of life in Mulla Sadra's view, the faithful man, the rational man and the moral man are identical. In this article, we use a descriptive-analytical method to firstly investigate some of the most important components of immateriality, eternity and meaningfulness of life, and then – considering the foundations of Mulla Sadra's philosophy – to deal with the role and status of belief in eternity of soul in meaning of life.

One of the most important and most complicated discussions in theology is the divine knowledge rooted in God's essence and extending to His attributes and actions. We have investigated this issue under the title of the orders of divine knowledge in the transcendental philosophy and concluded that those orders are four. They are as follows: (a) Grace (ʿināyat) with fifteen features, the most important among which are knowledge, causality and divine eternal consent of the best system; (b) Divine Decree (qaḍāy rabbānī) which includes rational and general forms of all beings in the universe in divine domain with features of collectiveness, synopticness, simplicity, and innovativeness; (c) Providential Knowledge (qadar ʿilmī) which includes minute and detailed forms of all beings in the world of celestial souls; and (d) External Providence (qadar khārijī) including the minute forms in the external matters. The Grace has no position, and the Providence and Decree have [certain] positions. The position of Decree is the Sublime Pen and the Preserved Tablet, and the position of Providential Knowledge is the non-sublime pen and the Effacement and Affirmation Tablet. And the position of the External Providence is the material world. Due to regarding both the immateriality of 'the known' and the immateriality of 'the knower' as [necessary] condition in knowledge, Mulla Sadra does not consider the external providence as the last order of divine knowledge, except through the scientific providence, which is free from objections for some thinkers.

One of the truths occupying the minds of many thinkers is the consciousness of creatures, an issue evidenced by the verses of the Holy Quran and the ample hadiths. The transcendental philosophy has taken valuable steps for explaining the diffusion of awareness in all creatures. This article attempts to make use of a descriptive-analytical method and a critical approach to investigate those evidences for universal consciousness of the creatures presented in transcendental philosophy by reliance on the personal unity of existence. The findings of this study suggest that if the evidences are not sufficient to prove the claim, one can use the Quranic verse and hadiths that denote the diffusion of awareness in all creatures to conclude that any creature enjoys knowledge, although the whole truth of such knowledge is unknown and inaccessible for human beings.

The 'ultimate cause' is among the important key issues in discussions of 'cause and effect' in Islamic philosophy, on which the discussion on the goal of creation is dependent. In the Islamic philosophy, first, the ultimate cause has been interpreted as the knowledge of destination and, similarly, the ultimate cause and the destination have been regarded as equal realities. This has caused certain difficulties and ambiguities in philosophical discussions. This article, in the section on the nature of the ultimate cause, criticizes knowledge as the ultimate cause and accepts affection, proclivity and the like. It also criticizes the unity of the ultimate cause and the destination to offer a better and more precise explanation wherein the ultimate cause and the destination are two completely different things, while they are somehow interrelated, and not all agents and actions have necessarily an ultimate cause or destination.