Assocoate prefessor and faculty member of Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute, Departement of Philosophy, Qom, Iran
Abstract
The fact that essences are directly and without any medication predicated of objective realities and the fact that such predications end up in tautology with the subject and predicate having the same instance caused philosophers from the time immemorial to think instinctively that objective realities are nothing other than essences- an interpretation known in later centuries as "fundamentality of essence". Based on this instinctive understanding Suhrawardi tried to prove that existence was respectival, having no instance in the real world and no real image [in mind]. His endeavors led philosophers to believe that essence was fundamental and essence respectival. Mir Damad has however touched the probability that existence be fundamental and essence respectival. He dealt with it as mere mental consideration, believing that it was false. Contrary to all his preceding philosophers, Mulla Sadra, being under the influence of mystics and relying on intuition, proposed that the latter that is the fundamentality of existence and non-fundamentality of essence was the right option. He proved his theory with the help of several arguments, considering thus essence as having nothing to do with the external world and freeing thus intellect from the clutches of essence. By doing so, he made new discoveries and solved many problems that were not solved previously. Most post-Sadrian Shiite thinkers agree with Sadra approving of many of his views. Among these thinkers, is Mudarris Ali Zynoozi, a powerful commentator of transcendental theosophy. The present article is an attempt to give an image of his version of fundamentality of existence.
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