THE EPISTEMOLOGICAL RESEARCH (AFAGHE HEKMAT)
Year:2012 | Volume:1 | Issue:3|Papers Count:7

Socrates is nowadays well-known as a philosopher, opponent of the Sophists of second half of the fifth century B.C., and the forerunner of a philosophical tradition cultivated by Plato and Aristotle, endured along with the whole history of philosophy with some alterations and moderations. But his contemporary Athenians sentenced him to death as a sophist, a heretic and a seducer of the youth. Was there anything in his character, method, behavior and sayings which led the Athenians to such a sentence? The present article answers this question. The conclusion is that there are some similarities between Socrates and the Sophists in the subject matter of discussion, in method, in individual character and in the content of teaching; these similarities can be seen in Plato’s dialogues too.

Criticizing Plato’s theory Aristotle brought down the ideas from heaven to earth and explained ideas as an internal content of particular things and then called it primary being or substance which is identical with essence. Then he logically defined ousia so that depicted the logical structure of world. But his critique of Plato forced him to explain the theory of form and matter as two fundamental substances which need each other. Thereby he was forced to develop a theory that would indicate ousia as being abstracted from the particular things. Naturally Aristotle was made to deal with some problems and questions. So he attempted to solve these problems through active and passive reason. However, this article shows that Aristotle’s theory is not provable anymore. Against this theory, Husserl spoke of subjective flow correlates with objects ordered systematically. Here, after explaining Husserl’s view on noema and noesis we come to the conclusion that form and matter are not divided as two separate substances, but they are provided by reflection over intuition and expressed by language. In the end it would be cleared that abstraction is explainable only through phenomenology and thereby we can explain that all scientific and reasonable systems are founded on living world.

Acquiring knowledge and wisdom is the most important characteristic of human being which is intensely commanded by the Islamic tradition. However, from what kind of knowledge shall we start our quest? and to which unknown shall we deal with? Surely self-knowledge is the most vital knowledge which is accompanied by divine and transcendental values for men, therefore Islamic philosophers and thinkers have seriously dealt with it. One of the most significant issues, in this respect, is createdness and eternity of the self. Mulla Sadra, among the Islamic philosophers, and ‘Allamah Majlisl, among the traditionists, have dealt with this issue in their works. There are common points in their views by which the two streams, i.e. philosophy and tradition, could be close together.

The present article tries to analyze a new approach to education and its related issues especially educating analytical thinking to children and adolescents which is included in the field of philosophical education for children. Improving the level of thinking is one of the most important issues in education inasmuch as one could properly distinguish between right and wrong and be able to think about what happens around his/her environment and analyze them correctly. This article firstly explains the reason why we choose "analytical thinking" rather than "critical thinking" and then mentions the elements of analytical thinking. Appling these elements (principles) could lead to an educational environment for cultivating analytical thinking that finally help children and adolescents to develop their power of thinking.

Pantheism is one of the broadest concepts in the history of thought which can be traced back to the ancient times. Therefore, reaching a consensus about its true meaning is not an easy task. However, for improving our understanding about the pantheist thinkers it appears necessary to deal with this concept comparatively. This article tries to survey the views of Rumi and Spinoza, two great thinkers of the history of thought, on knowledge and the ways of gaining it. It also tries to compare Rumi’s transcendental pantheism with Spinoza’s monistic pantheism, which apparently seem different, and enumerate their similarities.

Alfred North Whitehead, the well-known philosopher of 20th century, in his book, The Aims of Education, asserts that art and aesthetics are the component parts of education. His definition of aesthetics is related, on the one hand, to the art and, on the other hand, to the values. This article tries to survey different aspects of art and aesthetics in Whitehead’s educational thoughts. Therefore firstly explains the views of Whitehead about organism and dynamics and then deals with the knowledge and cognition from his viewpoint and finally describes Whitehead’s theory of dynamic concepts. From Whitehead’s point of view, the true spirit of education is art. He tries to give a new way of looking at the place of art in making education more enjoyable. The views of Whitehead about the place of art and aesthetics present him as a distinguished educational philosopher; therefore, we believe that his thoughts and theories are useful and applicable for educational systems.

Depending on his own intellectual system, Iqbal stresses the eastern wisdom of eastern people and Muslims and challenges the western schools of thought including materialism and nihilism. His philosophy is composed of reasoning, mysticism, Quran, Hadith, love, spiritual concern, self-consciousness, awakening, passion and includes transcendental theory and action. He believes that the western rationality must be regarded in terms of technique and information and it is empty of deep view and intuition. Iqbal mentions that achievement of western culture and civilization leads to the development of technical reason and destruction of soul. Western wisdom has developed on the ruins of oppressed world and its satanic and demonic reason is accompanied by tyrannical and aggressive plans. This process has led to the transformation of original cultures of oppressed people and the destruction of eastern knowledge, spirituality and religious belief. For this reason Iqbal ardently asks eastern Muslims to be attached to their own tradition, strength and knowledge, the knowledge that leads to salvation and truth.