JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHICAL THEOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Year:2006 | Volume:8 | Issue:1 (29)|Papers Count:8

The problem of the Holy prophet's succession in Islam is one of those issues which cause disputes among Muslims. The question is that: Is it necessary for the prophet to have a successor to lead people or, as Kharijites Held then, the Book of God is sufficient and no one is permitted to govern people. The author in this paper, after a short discussion on the meaning of Imam, attempts to offer Islamic theologians, especially Imamites' viewpoints and especially Ibn Maytham's point of view. Then it deals with the other disputed question., i.e., the responsibility of designating and installing Imam; according to the Sunnis, this responsibility is among the tasks of Muslim community, but according to the Shi'a, it is God's responsibility, and the Prophet or Imam only introduces the next Imam.

In this paper, the author tries to deal with one of the most important contemporary ethical problems, i.e. euthanasia. Is it moral and ethically justifiable to kill a terminally ill person on his or her request due to an endless pain and suffering or incurable disease? To answer the question, the paper is divided into five sections. In the first section, euthanasia and its various kinds are defined, and the scope of the paper is limited accurately. The second section introduces catholic teachings and its uncompromising position against this action. The third section introduces Islamic viewpoint on euthanasia. Based on the Quranic verses, killing an innocent person is the gravest crime and is against God's written law. The forth section concentrates on the two fundamental arguments in favor of euthanasia: the first is self-determination and respect for human autonomy, and the second is compassion and kindness to the patient with incurable disease. The fifth section assesses these. Reasons and tries to show that they are misused.

Aristotle, Regarded as the founder of psychology (study of the soul), understood substances as matter organized by a particular form. The soul, for Aristotle, is the form of the body. Yet, in his view, motion, nourishing, imagination and reasoning, are among the acts of the soul, which make it different from other forms. Studying psychology deeply in the light of the Kalam and Islamic philosophy, Ibn Sina raised a number of questions: Is reasoning corporeal or incorporeal? Is the soul enduring or mortal? And what is the relationship between the soul and body? Contrary to Aristotle, Ibn Sina held that the soul is not corporeal, mortal and impressed in body but it is incorporeal, enduring, and regulator of body. Innovating new methods and solutions for topics such as the existence of the soul, nature of minds, sensory perceptions, inner sense, intellectual faculties, interaction between the soul and body, relationship between active intellect and human intelligence, and many other questions, Ibn Sina also attempted to study the soul separately and free from the methodology of physics, and in fact, to establish study of the soul on foundations different from Aristotle view.

Question of relationship between truth and justice can give a proper chance to representing some of the most important disputed concepts in respect to basic political values such as justice, equality, and human rights. Since there are some differences in basic principle as well as in methodology, it is necessary to examine the correlation of truth with justice in different epistemic levels or layers. The present essay attempts to embark on such a study by mentioning some more important examples, so that to provide an entrance to the nowadays settings of the discussion for Persian-speaking readers.

Compulsion and choice are one of the significant issues of theology; and from a long time ago, it has been paid attention to with different viewpoints; each of the followers of the different beliefs has dealt with this issue according to his own specific idea. One of the famous viewpoints in this regard is that of the mystics, which has a widespread reflection in the literal-mystical heritage. Mowlavi, as one of the theoreticians of this issue, deals with it in Mathnavi Ma'navi through anecdotes and proverbs, which is the Quranic method. In this article, the background of the theological discussions and its effect on the Iranian's culture and thoughts, as well as on Mowlavi's mystical viewpoints, are investigated. He poses such issues as cause and signification, providing causes and removing them, the relationship between compulsion and trust to show that Allah's specific compulsion is the sign of man's weakness and finally of the compulsion. With reference to the man's regret and shame for what he has done, he also introduces man as a creature with a conscious choice.

Iranians have been familiar with new western philosophies for more than one century. One of the main subjects which today should be seriously dealt with is typology of Iranian thinkers' approaches to those philosophies. The author of this paper holds that Sayyed Jalal d-din Ashtiani and Morteza Motahari can be studied as representative of two different approaches to western philosophy. According to the author's claim, Motahari's approach is more plausible, more useful and more practical. Presenting some introductory points, the present article examines these two thinkers' viewpoints of western philosophy in a comparative way; then, it explains why Mortahari's approach is better, though possessing shortcomingsa.

Among the questions of fundamental importance in theoretical Sufism is analysis of the realm of all other than God, after oneness of being (wahdat al-wujood). Enumerating necessary preliminaries of the discussion, this paper investigates into tajalli (theophany) as a scheme, which is put in charge of explaining and analyzing Multiplicities. What, for the author, can be of special importance is the validity of what is ascribed to mystics, especially to those following Muhyi al-Din Ibn al-'Arabi. Meanwhile in the writings of some researchers, there are some wrong conceptions, which are decisively ascribed to Shaykh Akbar; if we are to prevent research harms, we should avoid such erroneous ascriptions and undertake to represent opinions precisely. So the author sets forth Shaykh Akbar's and his expositor's words in a narrator-like way and then analyze them.

Among the ethical theories in the domain of normative ethics is ethical egoism. Presenting the kinds and versions of ethical egoism and its relationship to psychological egoism, this paper describes the structure and components of this theory, and then offers the arguments of those in favor and the opponents of the theory and criticizes the arguments of each.