Ayeneh Ma‘refat
Year:2019 | Volume:19 | Issue:59 |Papers Count:9

Fakhr al-Din Razi is one of the pioneers of theology and an eminent commentator of the holy Quran who lived in the sixth and seventh centuries AH. The present study seeks to reveal the relationship between God and nature in Fakhr Razi's interpretive views. In this regard, there is strong evidence showing that Fakhr Razi's God is not committed to the laws of nature. Rather His will can turn out to be contrary to the laws of nature. In addition, Fakhr Razi denies the influence of nature and its mediatory role in divine action. The author of "The Great Interpretation" relies on a God that everything can be attributed to his infinite power. He feels no need for providing natural explanations for the world phenomena. More than that, he assumes a critical view of the naturalist explanations of nature, and tries to identify their weaknesses. He puts emphasis on the necessity of attributing the world phenomena to a capable and willful God.

The eliminative materialism does not approve the explanation of behavior based on mental states. It insists that human behavior should be explained solely based on neuronal phenomena. With the purpose of rejecting the belief in mental states, the supporters of this view call belief in mental states a conventional view which stands against neuroscience. Analyzing the basic principles of eliminative materialism, the present article demonstrates that this view is a kind of ontological monopoly that is incapable of explaining the nature of mind. It is also argued that with the denial of the existence of mental states, there will neither be space for psychology as a scientific applied field of knowledge nor for the key concepts of social sciences. Scientific psychology moves forward with assumption that humans are social beings and this basic assumption which shapes psychology as a scientific field of study cannot be interpreted in physical terms. The affirmative claim of this article is the fact that human nature can only be understood through the interaction of psychology and neuroscience. Belief in immaterial mental states is not against neuroscience or other life sciences and a definition of human being based on immaterial soul provides an unrivaled coherent ontological basis for defending scientific psychology.

The issue of God vision is one of the most challenging topics among Islamic sects which has undergone chnages through the history of theological thinking. From among the different approaches dealing with this issue, two of them, that is, delegation and interpretation have attracted more attention from Islamic theologians. As adherents to tradition, Salafists and the early Ash'arists, with emphasis on the literal meanong of verses and traditions, adhere to the justifiability of God vision, though in the course of time, to escape the problem of simile, they have drawn on the principle of “ without asking how” . In comparison, Shi’ ites, Mu’ tazila and recent Ash'arists, through interpreting the verses and traditions, believe in the justifiability of intuitive vision in the Resurrection Day. Rashid Reza, as the most prominent contemporary Sunni commentator, in explaining the issue of God vision, takes an approach similar to the interetative approach of recent Ash'arists. However, to empathize with Salafism, he describes the interpretative meaning of God vision inefficeint. Adopting content analysis, the presernt artice, with Precise explanation of Rashid Reza’ s reading of God vision, idnetifies and criticizes duality in his interpretation.

The belief in the substantial movement of existents, including human beings, is an important basis upon which Mulla Sadra is distinguished from other philosophers preceding him. In some statements in his works, Mulla Sadra has put forward two types of movement, one is the innate movement and the other is the voluntary one. According to him, humans share with other creatures the first movement, and just as other creatures like plants and animals, are subject to developmental intrinsic movement according to their existential capacity. There are stages of human intrinsic movement as well as emergencies. Unlike other beings, man has the privilege of following the stages of his intrinsic movement, which are the stages of animal and plant, and attaining the level of human intellect, by his own choice and will. Although he defines the real ultimate destination of man’ s substantial movement as the union with the active intellect, given that substantial movement is voluntary, the ultimate destination will not be the same for all. The implication is that some, due to their ill will, will fail to reach the ultimate destination.

The lifestyle in its preliminary form, can be considered as a package of behavioral styles with patterned choices, through which people can signify their own identity and its differences and similarities with others’ identities. The man’ s conception of the world, God, one’ s self, the start and end of his life and his internalized values, all can directly affect one’ s choices which form his/her lifestyle. The critical stance of family in the world today highlights the necessity of introducing the Islamic lifestyle. Although there are various sources which deal with lifestyle from an Islamic point of view, the effective basic principles of Islamic family lifestyle have not received enough attention. To bridge the gap, the present study deals with the basic anthropological principles of family lifestyle. The research method adopted in the study is descriptive-analytical with a focus on several narrative texts and commentaries. The argument is that, considering the anthropological principles, the family lifestyle from the Islamic point of view differs greatly from the lifestyles emerging from the humanistic and non-religious thought systems.

The theory of the first ruler of the Virtuous City is one of the most important subjects of al-Farabi's social science. The relationship between this theory and his philosophical foundations is the main focus of the present article. It is concluded that this theory and its concomitant necessity of the presence of first ruler and his characteristics and responsibilities is based on six tenets in al-Farabi's philosophical system, including human social innate disposition, theory of individual souls, the concept of happiness, the status of active intellect, volition and religion(prophecy) in man's happiness. The interconnection between the theory of the first ruler and al-Farabi's philosophical principles indicates its internal coherence and originality.

The creation of a new Islamic civilization as the ideal of the Islamic Republic of Iran has attracted more attention in academic circles in recent years. The interdisciplinary nature of "civilization research" also emphasizes the necessity of addressing this topic from a variety of perspectives. The Supreme Leader has emphasized the components of "training of efficient human capital" in order to create a new Islamic civilization and recommended an innovative and scholarly look at the formal education system and the formulation of an appropriate educational philosophy. The present study is aimed at, first, explaining the relationship between the educational philosophy of society and the modern Islamic civilization, and, second, explaining the ideal philosophy of education consistent with the approach to civilization (based on the Supreme Leader’ s views). The research method adopted in the present study is descriptive-analytical-deductive. First, by justifying the role of the educational system in: providing the human capital necessary for making civilization, developing the spiritual-ethical characteristics, institutionalizing the Islamic lifestyle, preparing for entry into higher education and producing science and technology, and nurturing the next generation of intellectual elites (for the production and promotion of intellect) which is needed for developing a civilization, the relationship between philosophy of education and civilization is justified. Then, the four components of the desirable philosophy of education are formulated in the form of: fundamental and basic actions, education goals, educational approach and educational dimensions. Based on the findings, to fulfill the general goal of education (training the human capital of Islamic civilization), there are ten intermediate goals in eight dimensions: spiritual, psychological, personal, ethical, scientific, civic, cultural-political, physical, and professional-economic which are presented and discussed. Finally, an appropriate educational approach is proposed, which is entitled "faithful effective human education".