فصلنامه اندیشه دینی
پیاپی 85 (زمستان 1401)

Some Muslim thinkers, from the very time that the four–dimensionalism (static Eternalism) was suggested by Naṣīr al–Dīn Ṭūsī (1201-1274 AD) to resolve some difficulties of time, have intensely tried to criticize it. Critiques of Quṭb al–Dīn al–Rāzī (d. 1375 AD) in Muḥākamāt are of particular importance among them specially from a historical point of view. Because, so many Muslim thinkers here – i.e. in the sub–commentaries of Muḥākamāt – have tried to offer their own views about the four–dimensionalism either negatively or positively. So, we have paid a special attention to the so numerous sub–commentaries of Muḥākamāt most of them are unedited and unpublished manuscripts. Al–Rāzī in his critique puts an emphasis first on the fact that the movement and change are self–evidently existent in the present time and not in the past and future and then on the facts that the movement is nonfixed and the qaṭʿīyyah movement is nonexistent in the external world. Some of the sub–commentators have proposed even further critiques the most famous of them is Dawwānī’s view: contradictory coincidence of the qaṭʿīyyah movement and the past(/present) property. The other critiques of four–dimensionalism are: absolute nonexistence of the qaṭʿīyyah movement in future; its being counterintuitive; its being inconceivable; appearance of the impossible infinite regress; its being eristic. We will collect all of the views scattered in the sub–commentaries throughout history and will analyze them rationally to show that why the presentism is a suitable alternative to the four–dimensionalism: if there were not such a difficulty as being an infinitesimal atom about the presentism, it would be possible to say that it is correct and the four–dimensionalism is not. But, since there is such a difficulty, we can only say that it is a suitable alternative to the four–dimensionalism.

Criterion of inherent complications, which has a direct role in the demarcation of knowledge, has been discussed since the distant past, and various views have been presented about it. In the meantime, Sheikh Mohammad Hossein Gharavi Isfahani (1296-1361 AH) and his student Allameh Tabatabaei (1360-1281 AH) while taking advantage of the legacy of the predecessors, have analyzed and evaluated the famous view among logicians and presented deep reflections. The present essay tries to organize, describe, compare and evaluate these two views using their different works using the descriptive-analytical method. Through this article, it becomes clear that the Isfahani scholar distinguishes between definition and falsification in the issue of distinction of sciences, and considers the criterion of distinction of sciences as "subject" in the position of definition and "purpose" in the position of falsification; Thus, while criticizing the famous view among logicians and also criticizing the view of Mohaghegh Khorasani, he considers the criterion of inherent contingency to be "the negation of mediation in conventional prose". Allameh Tabatabai distinguishes between proof and non-proof sciences, he considers the assignment of predicates to inherent complications as special for proof sciences and the necessity of the certainty of the premises of the proof, and based on this characteristic, he draws the characteristics of inherent complications. In these two views, despite the many precisions, there are some shortcomings that we have discussed in this article.

In Seyyed Haider Amoli's view, the three levels of the Sharia are the longitudinal levels of one truth that are never separated from each other. He considers the spiritual evolution of man to be in accordance with the three levels of Sharia. In his view, it is not possible to achieve certain perfections of each person except in terms of the compatibility of Sharia rituals with the inherent talent of individuals; For this reason, everyone needs a specific plan and instructions to reach their certain perfections, which are considered in the Sharia. The appearance of Sharia and its explanation is through reason. The limited intellect is incapable of understanding Sharia rituals, and due to cognitive limitations, man needs Sharia. The purpose of Sharia is to complete the scientific and practical powers of man. Among the achievements of Seyyed Haider's view is the connection of Sharia rituals with the text of reality. With the triple layers that exist in the text of existence, knowledge and Sharia, all the layers return to a single objective truth. In fact, all the layers of Sharia law, including Sharia rituals and beliefs, will have a true root and formative connection. In this view, a person has a serious obligation to preserve the appearance of the text of the Sharia while seeking knowledge about the Sharia. In the field of action, it is not possible to get into its inner world without preserving the appearance of Sharia rituals. In this article, the mystical principles of this view have been extracted with analytical-descriptive method and the connection of each of these principles with different aspects of Seyyed Haider's view has been explained.

the theory of “physical origination and psychic survival of Nafs” and its attainment to the level of intellectual abstraction after the stages of self-development is one of the achievements of the school of transcendent theosophy which is unprecedented among the pre-Mulla Sadra scholars. According to his principles, the human Nafs achieves the level of pure abstraction through the substantive motion from the level of pure materiality. This is the meaning of the physical origination and psychic survival of Nafs. The skepticism that arises from this perspective is how a single real thing, such as the soul, is characterized by two contradictory descriptions; That is, it becomes material and immaterial? Isn't this the essential transformation that its impossibility is accepted by scholars as well as Mulla Sadra? Research on this issue shows that based on the principality of existence and its analogical gradation, this doubt does not enter; because the impossibility of the essential transformation is related to principality of essence and also the originality of existence based on the difference of beings. The analogical gradation of the existence of the human soul indicates that the soul in one stage is material, and in another stage, passes this materiality and reaches the stage of abstraction. Therefore, there is no unity in rank here until the agreement of two opposites is necessary. In the analogical gradation of the existence, the common factor and the distinguishing factor are the same; Therefore, there is no problem in the simplicity and unity of the soul. This view is also consistent with religious teachings. This article has studied and analyzed this issue with a descriptive method and analysis of the basics.

Mulla Sadra Shirazi is the innovator or hard defender of theory of originality of existence against the originality of nature. On this basis, he believes that the individuation of an object depends on the manner of its existence. Prof. Mesbah Yazdi, knows this viewpoint as the start point of promise to the originality of existence. Mulla Sadra believes that Farabi also used to know the individuation as the manner of existence and he attributes this viewpoint to Farabi. He has confirmed this attribution in four books of: Asfar, Description to Hedayat Asiriyeh, Rasael Tesa, and a commentary on Shafa Theologies; however, he does not mention any document for this attribution. Upon review of documents, this writing assays that documentation; and by presenting the following three evidences including a review on some other documentations of Sadra, reviewing the case in explicit opinions of Farabi, and reviewing this theory on the basis of principle of cognition of future under the shadow of the past, confirms the attribution of the said viewpoint to Farabi, and indicates that Mulla Sadra is the first one for this claim.

The extreme dualism of soul and body in Descartes' philosophy raises the issue of the relationship between the two. One of the criticisms that opponents of dualism have made on the existence of the soul has been this issue. Gilbert Ryle also raised these issues in his book The Concept of Mind (1949), which he wrote in refuting Cartesian dualism. This issue has been raised and answered by Descartes himself and his contemporaries. But the solutions that Descartes offered to solve this problem were not convincing and finally, to solve (dissolution) this problem, he suggested not thinking about how this relationship is.By removing the gap between the soul and the body, and by using his own principles, such as the principality of existence, gradation of existence, substantial movement, etc., and also by propounding intermediaries such as steamy soul and the ideal body, Sadr al-Muti'allihīn sought an appropriate answer to this problem. In this view, the soul and the body are not separate two distinct entities; Rather, the two are levels of a single truth. Although, based on Sadra's point of view, a better answer can be given to the problem of interaction between soul and body, but this point of view also faces problems and ambiguities. It seems that philosophers, despite all their efforts, have not been able to give a proper answer to this problem, but this cannot be a reason to deny the existence of the soul.